


Zombie Versus Teens

by ZNKhan



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Breakfast Club, Cheerleader, F/M, Goth - Freeform, High School, Horror, Jock - Freeform, Last of Us, Quarterback, The Last of Us - Freeform, Zombie, Zombies, nerd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-10 07:11:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12906822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZNKhan/pseuds/ZNKhan
Summary: Set in the world of The Last Of Us with original characters.In the fictional state of Old York, five teenagers from different walks of high school life find themselves united when zombies appear in their city. Can an outsider, a goth, a nerd, a quarterback and a cheerleader co-exist? And what will happen when a girl claiming to be 'the cure' wanders into their midst?"Sorta like The Breakfast Club with zombies."





	1. School

I watch the seconds tick by and fight to keep my eyes open as I stare at the clock at the front of the classroom. Half an hour and detention will be over. Mr Carlton, my History teacher, is marking papers behind his desk and muttering irritably to himself. At the start of the two hours, he made it plain that he wasn't happy about having to supervise the evening detention, which explains why he's just been ignoring me and my fellow inmates.  
Casting a glance around the room, I check what my fellows are up to. We are a room of high school clichés. To my far left, by the window, Matilda- or Tilly as she screams at anybody who calls her by her full name- is staring intently at the wall in front of her. Dressed in black- always dressed in black-, she's the stereotype of a 'goth'.  
A couple of rows behind me, Marty has his nose buried deep in his Chemistry textbook. He's known as a 'nerd' or a 'geek'. He wears a checkered shirt that he tucks into his trousers and thick black glasses. He's a good guy. Not the sort you'd expect to find in detention. Just really quiet and keeps to himself which, unfortunately for him makes him the perfect target for bullies.  
And speaking of bullies, in the back row, Dirk has his eyes closed, his head bobbing back and forth in time with whatever song his IPod is playing, a pair of earphones in his ears. The quarterback of the football team and son of the richest businessman in Durham, he owns this school. He is at the top of the high school hierarchy with his pretty boy looks, popularity, wealth and athleticism.  
And then there's Naomi. Blonde. Head cheerleader. Really into her looks and not exactly what you'd call 'smart.'  
Which brings me finally to me. Cole. I'm the sort of guy who doesn't fit into any of the cliques. You know that guy just carrying his food tray, trying to find a place to sit at lunch but ends up eating behind the bleachers cos everyone's sat in their cliques and there's no room for outsiders? I'm the outsider. The guy who isn't popular but isn't a loner either.  
Being in detention with these guys from different walks of high school life reminds me of that movie, The Breakfast Club. Except I don't think we'll be doing any kind of bonding, dancing, fooling around, unexpectedly sharing our feelings or realising that, despite our differences, we're all just kids with real problems.  
'Alright you miscreants, listen up.'  
All us detentioners look to see Mr Carlton getting to his feet, a stack of papers in his hand.  
'I need to get these papers to the teachers lounge,' he informs us. 'I'll be back in a few minutes. No-one is to leave this room or act inappropriately. Marty, you're in charge.'  
No-one says anything as Mr Carlton leaves the room with one final warning look at us. But the instant the door closes behind him, Dirk lets out a derisive scoff, pulling the earphones from his ears.  
'So the teacher's pet’s in charge,' he mocks, staring at Marty whose eyes drops to his desk. 'I'd better not act out in any way! Better think twice about doing something like this...'  
Reaching into his backpack, he pulls out a straw before proceeding to tear a page from the notebook open on his desk. Ripping a corner of the page off, he balls it up, stuffs it inside the straw and spitballs it at the back of Marty's head.  
The piece of paper lodges itself in Marty's ginger curls but as Dirk laughs and Naomi giggles in that incredibly fake, high-pitched way, all Marty does is slump down in his chair, his face reddening.  
Tilly seems offended on Marty's behalf and when Naomi continues to giggle, Tilly shoots her the nastiest of looks which Naomi chooses to ignore.  
As Dirk prepares to launch another spitball at Marty, I feel my irritation mount. 'Leave him alone Dirk,' I say coldly.  
To my surprise, Dirk does what I ask. But then he turns the straw my way and I wait for him to fire, ready for it.  
But the spitball never comes. Because before Dirk can hurl it, the lights above us give a sudden flicker and a second on, the room is plunged into complete darkness.  
Someone screams. I figure it's Naomi but for all I know it could've been Dirk. Which would be hilarious. The sound of scraping chairs tells me people have gotten up from their seats. Holding onto my desk, I slowly stand too, not knowing what's going on and confused by the unexpected power outage.  
'W-what's happening?' I hear Naomi say, nervousness apparent in her tone.  
'Don't worry,' Marty replies at once. 'I'm sure Mr Carlton will be back any second and he'll let us go early of the power cut.'  
'So we just say here and wait?' Tilly asks, sounding uncertain. 'I've been in a number of evening detentions and this has never happened before.'  
I can hear them all but I can't see them in the darkness.  
'Hey Tilly?' I call. 'You wanna open the blinds so we can get some of the glow from the streetlamp outside in here?'  
'... Oh yeah, right...' Tilly replies.  
The next sound to reach my ears is that of the blinds being opened. Once they are no longer closed, the vacant street beyond the window comes into view and with it, like I had said, some of the glow from the streetlamp, bathing the window in orange light.  
There is now enough light that I can see around the classroom. And I see that there is one less person among myself, Tilly, Marty and Naomi than there had been moments ago.  
'W-where's Dirk?' Naomi whispers, voicing what I was thinking.  
No-one answers her.  
My eyes move to the door at the back of the room. The door which hadn't been open when detention had begun but now was open. Had Dirk left without telling anyone?  
'He was supposed to be my ride home,' Naomi moans.  
'No worries,' says Tilly, turning to face Naomi. 'I can give you a ride on my broomstick if you want.'  
She smiles sweetly at Naomi who narrows her eyes at her. Marty gives an awkward cough. The memories of how Naomi and her friends, who many have termed the 'Naomi-ettes', have tormented Tilly for years, claiming that she was a witch because she wears black clothes and black make-up, has a black cat and lives in a big old-fashioned- and in the eyes of some, creepy- house, seem to hang in the air.  
'Er,' I say to break the awkwardness in the room, 'you know, I don't think Mr Carlton will mind us leaving, given the circumstances. Marty, what do you say? He did put you in charge.'  
Facing Marty, I watch him deliberate. Then he nods.  
'I don't think he'll mind,' he says. 'Let's go.'  
Tilly, Naomi and I quickly grab our stuff. Marty does too.  
I see Naomi glance at the door at the back of the classroom. Tilly and Marty have already begun to head towards the door at the front of the room. Perhaps because she does not want to leave by herself, Naomi decides to follow them. And I follow her.  
When Marty opens the door, we discover that the hallway is dark too. Whether the power is out in the entire school, I do not know.  
The four of us stick together in some sort of silent agreement as we head down the unlit hallway en route for the main doors. I supposed I should be glad that detention is over early. I just hope that strict Mr Carlton will see things our way and not choose to give us another detention for leaving early.  
There is something eerie about walking down the wide, empty hallway, Naomi's elevated breathing and the sound of her heels click-clacking on the tiled floor the most prominent noises around us.  
We get halfway to the doors when it happens. When there comes a loud cry from beyond the doors. A cry for help. And it is succeeded by a horrible growling sound that turns my veins to ice.  
'Let's-let's take the other exit,' Naomi says fearfully as the voice that cried for help cries out again.  
'Someone's out there!' I respond, pointing to the doors. 'It sounds like they need help!'  
'I-I'm not going out there!' Naomi says frantically, shaking her head, making her perfect hair bounce.  
'There's a surprise!' Tilly says, the sarcasm evident in her voice. 'The bimbo's afraid.'  
And turning away from a glaring Naomi, Tilly marches to the doors. After a second's hesitation, she throws them open and whilst she does so, I hold my breath, imagining what the possible scene on the other side could be. The situation wasn't one where a second could be spared to decide what to do since the person in need could be in a serious predicament.  
When the doors open, the school parking lot comes into view. Bizarrely Naomi has hidden behind a bewildered Marty.  
My eyes scan the parking lot, my heart beating a little faster.  
The voice seeking help cries out again. And I find the one to whom it belongs.  
There, in the centre of the lot, a person has another pinned to the ground and the two are struggling. I strain my eyes to try and make out who they are and my eyes widen when I recognize the guy on the bottom as Dirk who is attempting to fight off the guy on top of him.  
I cannot see the face of the guy on top but I hear him growl and to my horror, I realise that he is trying to bite down on Dirk's neck.  
Naomi screams, Marty gasps, Tilly curses in shock and my mind starts to race. Memories of the news reports I'd seen on TV, on the internet and in newspapers over the past few weeks flash before my eyes. The Sickness, the name given to the pandemic that the authorities are loathe to call the 'zombie' pandemic because that sounds mad but that people call the zombie pandemic because those that contract it become... well zombies.  
And the reports also revealed that zombies pass on The Sickness by biting people's necks.  
But the last report reassured the public that The Sickness was quarantined in Maine. That there were procedures in place to ensure that it didn't leave that state. So it couldn't have travelled all the way to Old York. Could it?  
From the guy fighting Dirk's demeanour, my immediate thought is that he must be a zombie. The thought sickens me.  
Despite his strength, Dirk is struggling to throw the guy off of him. I hastily look at Marty. He looks at me and I see that he seems reluctant. After all that Dirk has put him through over the years, I guess I can hardly blame him.  
'HELP ME!'  
Dirk's terrified voice has me spinning back round. I am startled to see that Tilly is no longer by the doors but is sprinting down the outside steps in the direction of Dirk and his attacker. Having dropped her backpack, I don’t think she has any weapons. How is she planning to help?  
With a frustrated groan, I glance to my right and spot a fire extinguisher. It's better than nothing.  
Grabbing it, I hasten after Tilly. Dirk has never been good to her or to me either. Still, I don’t want him to die. Or worse die and then come back as a zombie, which is how it is said those monsters come to be.  
Tilly reaches Dirk and the one trying to assault him before me. I raise the fire extinguisher as I run but before I can get there, from out of her boot, I see Tilly pull something silver. I cannot see what it is from where I am but whatever it is, without delay, she thrusts it into the neck of the person attempting to bite Dirk's neck. An awful gargling sound erupts from the possible zombie's throat and he stops trying to attack Dirk. Instead he falls on top of Dirk, twitching horribly but Dirk wastes no time in shoving him off of him and scrambling to his feet.  
As Dirk shudders, his face pale, his expression displaying his trauma, I arrive at the scene and look down at the attacker. And now I shudder. Because I see that the man's skin has an unnatural greyish tinge to it and that his eyes are sunken. He smells foul and I very nearly retch. There is no longer any doubt. The man has all the symptoms that the reports listed. He is definitely a zombie and he is still twitching, not yet dead.  
Staring up at me, Tilly and Dirk who are all looking down at him, quiet groans escape the zombie’s mouth which smells as bad as the rest of him. Blood is pouring from the part of his neck where Tilly’s weapon had struck him and is still in him and I do not think twice about what I do next. Lifting the fire extinguisher above my head, I bring it crashing down on the zombie's face, desiring to put it out of its- and our- misery. He sees it coming and lets out a dreadful, bloodcurdling screech. And then his face smashes under the weight of the fire extinguisher, pieces of bone and decayed flesh flying all over the place, and he stops twitching.  
Hunching over, Dirk rests his hands on his thighs and breathes hard. I drop the fire extinguisher and also release a hard breath. No emotion upon her face, Tilly pulls the blood stained dagger from the zombie's neck, wipes it on the zombie's shirt and stows it back in her boot. I hide my surprise at the fact that not only does she have a weapon that she was concealing buy she brought it to school.  
'You're welcome,' Tilly says to Dirk who does not reply nor makes any attempt to thank her.  
Still looking down at the dead zombie, I swallow.  
'Please don't tell me that was what I'm hoping it wasn't,' comes Naomi's frightened voice from behind me.  
'W-was it a...' Marty begins but trails off, like he can't bring himself to say the word 'zombie.'  
'Affirmative,' Tilly confirms grimly.  
'What-what was it doing here?!' Dirk abruptly bursts out. 'I figured I'd ditch detention early and I come out here to get my car and I get jumped! This isn't Maine!'  
'People always said there was a chance the virus could spread,' I mutter as Marty and Naomi arrive on either side of me.  
Naomi squeezes her eyes shut so as not to have to look at the zombie and Marty, taking one look at the zombie, loses colour in his face and hastily pulls out his inhaler from his shirt pocket and take a large puff from it.  
With an exasperated sigh, Dirk runs his hands through his hair and then goes and grabs his backpack which is lying on the ground a few metres away. Without a word to any of us, he starts to head towards the other side of the parking lot where his sports convertible is parked alongside the school bus.  
For a moment I watch him go before turning back to the zombie and trying to work out what to do next. A second on, Marty crouches down beside the zombie's head and begins to study it, though he appears keen not to touch the dead body. I guess his natural curiosity is too much to resist. He is the son of a scientist after all.  
A sudden chorus of growls has my head shooting up from the zombie. A few paces in front of me, Dirk has frozen. And the reason becomes immediately clear. Beyond the fence, I see figures walking- or rather dragging their bodies- up the road towards the school. Their growls are growing louder with each step they take towards us and their stench is wafting our way. Perhaps the dead zombie's screech alerted them.  
'Oh no, no no no,' Naomi whimpers, backing up. 'There are more of them here?!'  
'Quick,' I say hastily, 'back into the school! We can barricade ourselves in!'  
'They'll surround us!' Marty replies. 'And there're a number of ways they can get into the school. Besides, all the rooms are electronically locked. Where are we supposed to hide?!'  
'Got a better idea?!' I demand, watching the approaching zombies. 'Carlton took our cell phones so it's not like we can call for help!'  
'I think I know what we can do,' Tilly says, her gaze on the school bus. 'We need to get away from the school.'  
'H-how?' Dirk stammers, his back still to the rest of us. 'M-my car won't get us through them. It's not made for zombie crushing. Plus they're likely to ruin the paint job! My dad'll kill me if they do that!'  
'Is that really what you're thinking about right now?!' Tilly snaps, facing Dirk and scowling at him. 'Well don't worry, daddy won't get a chance to kill you if the zombies get you first!'  
Her words make Dirk's mouth fall open but without a care, Tilly turns to me, Marty and Naomi.  
'I just need a few minutes,' she says.  
And with that, she sets off running for the school bus.  
'What is she doing?!'' Naomi shrieks. 'Let's just go back into the school!'  
'Go then,' I respond, my eyes on the approaching zombies.  
'Alone?!' Naomi cries. 'No way! Dirk, come with me.'  
But Dirk does not answer her. Instead, with one look at her, he takes off running after Tilly who seems to be trying to find a way into the bus.  
'Dirk!' Naomi, who looks shocked by the fact that he did not listen to her, calls after him. ' Come back!'  
When he does not, Naomi faces Marty who gulps at this sudden show of attention. I wonder which he is more alarmed by; Naomi giving him the time of day or the zombies.  
'You,' Naomi demands of Marty. 'Arty, come with me.'  
'M-my name is Marty,' Marty stutters, avoiding eye contact with her. 'And-and on reflection, I don't think going back into the school is a good idea after all.'  
And before Naomi can react, pushing his glasses back up his nose, Marty too dashes for the school bus.  
I can see that Naomi is starting to get annoyed amid her fear as she stomps her foot petulantly on the ground and turns to me.  
'Don't look at me sister,' I say, holding up my hands.  
I hear Naomi scoff and then she starts to storm towards the school bus as there comes the sound of glass breaking and I look to see that that Dirk has smashed the glass of one of the bus's windows.  
The zombies are now almost at the locked gate. Bending forward to grab the fire extinguisher, the bottom of which is covered in the dead zombie's blood, when I straighten back up, I am startled to see Dirk giving Tilly a boost so that she can climb in through the bus's broken window.  
I begin to run towards the bus, attempting to ignore the groans and the stench of the zombies that are now more prominent given their closer proximity. By the time I stop next to Marty and Naomi, Tilly is inside the bus, running past the rows of seats towards the front of the vehicle.  
I see the glass gathered on the tarmac and the jagged pieces still attached to the bus, where the window had been, and I grimace at the knowledge that Tilly could've seriously hurt herself.  
'There's no arguing with her,' Dirk mutters as if he read my thoughts. 'She's going to hotwire the bus. I hope that locked gate holds off those zombies long enough.'  
My grip tightens on the fire extinguisher but I can't help thinking it won't be much use against that horde of zombies. I can't believe this is really happening. It was crazy enough to hear that zombies had started to appear in Maine but there was a sort of reassurance in knowing that The Sickness wasn't in my state. I know that might sound selfish but that's how I felt.  
The news reports did not sugar coat the fact that a cure has not yet been found. That's an even scarier thought now that the zombies are here.  
At the front of the bus, I can see Tilly fiddling around with the ignition.  
'H-how's it going in there Tilly?' I call hastily, seeing the zombies at the front of the group reach the gate.  
'Nearly there!' Tilly yells back.  
The zombies start to rattle the gate, attempting to push it open. I swallow hard. Naomi shudders, grabbing onto Dirk's arm. I see a flash of what appears to be jealousy flash across Marty's face. I think he has had a crush on her for years. Too bad she barely acknowledges his existence.  
'Could you hurry it up?!' Naomi, staring at the zombies who are staring right back at us, calls shrilly to Tilly.  
'Sorry your bimbo-ness!' Tilly shouts back. 'My witchy powers are running low so I gotta do this by hand! Now SHUT UP and wait! Or I'm leaving your teeny tiny butt behind!'  
Instantly Naomi's mouth snaps shut. The expression on her face, like when a kid is startled after getting scolded, would be priceless in any other situation.  
In spite of myself, I watch the zombies. Some of them are still rattling the gate but others... others have begun to try and climb it with monkey-like agility.  
'I can't become a zombie,' Naomi wails. 'Prom is next month!'  
I resist the urge to roll my eyes once and then again when Naomi gives Dirk a hopeful glance, like she wants him to ask her to be his date. I see that same look of jealousy pass over Marty's face again.  
Three of the zombies are halfway up the gate. I gaze at the broken bus's window and wonder if we ought to climb in like Tilly did. If that would give us a better chance of defending ourselves.  
It is while I am thinking this, the sound of the gate being rattled and the growls of the zombies making me wince, that Tilly gives a sudden triumphant yell and the door of the bus opens.  
I exhale in relief before giving a violent cough as the smell of the zombies invades my nostrils. Dirk, Naomi and Marty bolt for the bus's door. I hasten after them and we pile inside in the same instant that the trio of zombies jump off the top of the gate and land in the parking lot.  
Naomi screams and in the driver's seat Tilly revs the engine, as much as you can rev the engine of a school bus.  
Slamming her foot down on the accelerator pedal, Tilly drives the bus forward with speed enough that Dirk, Marty, Naomi and I lose our balance, the fire extinguisher falling from my hand. It, Dirk and Marty go flying down the bus while Naomi and I fall onto opposite seats.  
The three zombies growl fiercely and begin to hurtle towards the bus.  
'Whoo!' Tilly yells, sounding excited.  
She drives straight through the zombies, none of whom, inexplicably, make any attempt to move out of the way. The blood and guts of the zombies splatter across the windscreen and Naomi dry heaves. Tilly just hits the window wipers, clearing most of the screen, and switches to fifth gear.  
Her intention becomes instantly clear and, my eyes bulging, I hold tightly onto the back of my seat as Tilly presses down on the accelerator pedal again.  
The bus flies forward. Naomi, Marty and Dirk hold onto their seats too. More zombies land in the parking lot. The bus runs through them. The window wipers clear the majority of their blood and guts. The gate gets nearer and nearer. Until the bus, going at the highest speed it can, collides into it and it gives way. None of the zombies try and move. I wonder why this is. But then I am distracted by the bus running through several more zombies as it zooms down the road outside the school. My stomach clenches as I see their body parts dismembered. Naomi shuts her eyes as a severed arm goes flying past the window on her right.  
'That was awesome!' Tilly exclaims.  
I frown at her enthusiasm and I'm just about to call her out on it when we hear a horrific scream from behind us. I crane my neck so fast that it cricks but the blast of pain I feel is nothing compared to the horror that consumes me at the sight my eyes lock onto.  
Outside the school doors that Tilly, Naomi, Dirk, Marty and I exited numerous minutes earlier, at the top of the steps, Mr Carlton is stood. Behind him, there is a zombie who has its teeth in his neck. As I watch, the zombie withdraws his teeth and Mr Carlton crumples.  
There are tears in Naomi's eyes and silence in the bus. Tilly is gazing out of her rear view mirror and her face has paled. Marty and Dirk's shoulders have tensed. I feel bile rise in my throat, both due to seeing Carlton get bit and at the realisation that the zombie that bit Carlton could've been in the school when my fellow passengers and I were.  
The few zombies who had not been run over by the bus are swarming into the parking lot. Soon Mr Carlton will be rising as one of them. The thought turns my stomach.  
The President himself told us there was nothing to worry about. That the government had a handle on The Sickness. Looks like that statement’s about to be tested.


	2. City Bound

Bleakly, I listen to the sound of the wheels of the bus rolling along under us. Inside the bus there is quiet and it has been that way from the moment we saw Mr Carlton get bit. I wonder if he has become a zombie yet.  
Naomi is sat on the seat across the aisle from me, her head resting against the window she is staring out of. Dirk is at the back of the bus and is staring up at the roof, his head touching the back of his seat.  
Marty is seated in the middle of the bus, on the left hand side, his head between his knees as he takes deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. I am in the first row of passenger seats, on the right hand side and am watching Tilly who is driving the bus. She has already refused my offer to take over the driving with a shake of her head and is currently staring firmly at the road ahead.  
Our school is half an hour outside of the city of Old York and so we have been driving through the countryside en route for the city. The rolling hills and fields of the countryside are almost covered in darkness but from what I can make out, they appear to be the same as they had been that morning. The same as they have always been i.e. untouched by zombies.  
Of course I could be wrong.  
I exhale a heavy breath. Before today, the only zombies I had ever seen had been on the news, the internet, in newspapers or the ones I had killed in video games.  
Before The Sickness began in Maine, I used to imagine what it would be like if a zombie pandemic happened in real life. I always thought I'd be the guy who was smart enough to make it to the end. That I'd make my way through any and all zombies and do what I had to do to survive. But say only one person could live, maybe it'd be Tilly instead. I mean the way she just stuck that dagger in the neck of that zombie in the school parking lot before I finished the job was impressive. And a little unreal. Now the memory of that incident is making me see her in a different light. She was braver than the rest of us in saving Dirk from that zombie. I gotta give her props for that one. Dirk definitely owes her. Whether he'll admit it is a different question.  
As the bus drives over a pot hole and bounces a little, my mind wanders to thoughts of what it would've been like if the detention we had been in hadn't been an after school detention. If the zombies had arrived at the school in the day, whilst the school had been full of teachers, both young and old. And kids, ranging in age from eleven to sixteen. What everyone have gotten away? Or would there have been victims and the number of zombies increased?  
On the other hand, would Mr Carlton have survived? Would he have gotten away in the chaos that the zombies would have caused?  
Thinking of Carlton makes me nauseous. He may have been strict but he wasn't that bad really. And now never again would I have to force myself to stay awake in his History class. I see him getting bitten every time I close my eyes.  
I wonder if things will go back to how they were this morning. If the government and the authorities will get The Sickness under control and this time actually successfully stop it spreading. They said they had done it last time. Clearly it got out of their control.  
I wonder if Old York will have to be quarantined. Or at least if parts of it, like the countryside, will have to be. I wonder if the horrors that the reports showed occurring in Maine will happen to us. Where the zombies got out of control and overran parts of the state. Where cities and towns lay in ruin and the streets were stained with blood. I hope not. Admittedly I have an unfortunate habit of jumping to the worst conclusion.  
'Hey,' Tilly suddenly says, glancing at the rest of us through her rearview mirror. 'So what's the plan for when we get into the city? Should we go and alert someone that the zombies have made it over here?'  
'Can't we just go home and pretend none of this is happening?' Naomi says in a pleading sort of voice.  
'So what, we just pretend that Carlton dropped dead and ignore the fact that he was murdered?' I mutter, loud enough that Naomi hears me.  
Her eyes drop to her lap and she does not answer.  
'I doubt those zombies are likely to stick to the school,' Marty says quietly. 'And if they get to the city...'  
'It could end up being a blood bath,' Dirk finishes grimly. 'We should- we should go tell someone.'  
The rest of us, except for Naomi, all incline their heads in agreement but do not say anything. A moment of silence. Then-  
'But who are we gonna tell?' Marty asks. 'The cops?'  
'Cole,' Tilly, without taking her eyes off the road, calls and when I turn to her , 'We should go see your stepdad. Is he on duty tonight?'  
'He's supposed to be,' I reply, cottoning on to the fact that Tilly is asking about my stepdad because he is the head of Precinct Twelve. 'Yeah, yeah that's a good idea. 'Let's go and-'  
I do not finish my sentence. Tilly abruptly slamming down on the brakes, sending the bus lurching forward, has me breaking off. Due to the fact that we are all wearing our seatbelts, the impact does not cause us any harm. We're all shocked though.  
'Tilly!' Naomi screeches, looking furious. 'Why did you-'  
The rest of her sentence is drowned out by Tilly pressing the bus's horn which blares out loudly.  
Frowning, I look to see Tilly staring at something only she can see. As she presses the horn again, I unbuckle my seatbelt and, getting to my feet, I move to the front of the bus. And I see what Tilly, the driver, saw but what the passengers were too far back to see. Through the patches of blood and zombie guts on the windshield, because of the light emitting from the bus's headlights, a person lying in the middle of the road, is visible. Next to whoever they are, I see what appears to be some sort of a paper file.  
Behind me, I hear the sound of seatbelts being undone.  
'I-I think it's a girl,' Tilly says, leaning forward in her seat.  
'A zombie?' I ask, leaning forward too.  
Tilly shrugs. Marty, Dirk and Naomi arrive at the front of the bus.  
'Why did we stop?' Marty says before his eyes land on the person on the road. 'Is that a- are the zombies already here?!'  
'Let's leave her,' Naomi says instantly. 'Let's just go.'  
'She's in the middle of the road!' Tilly says irritably. 'What do you want me to do? Run her over?'  
'You did it to those zombies in the school parking lot! And those outside the gate!'  
'They were proven zombies! That person on the road may not be!'  
'Enough!' I say sharply, interrupting the two girls and looking from one of them to the other, 'Look, we've got cops to warn and zombies on the loose- and yes I did just say that. So we need to do whatever we're going to do quickly... So what are we going to do?'  
'Erm, I think that decision might've just become easier.'  
Marty's trembling voice has me turning to him. Bemused by his words, I follow his gaze to the road ahead where the person on the road is no longer lying on it but is standing on it and staring right at us, the paper file now in her hands.  
The first thing I notice is that she does not appear to have any outward signs of being a zombie. In fact she just appears to be a young girl, seemingly no older than those of us inside the bus. But this was not the first time I had been fooled by a pretty face.  
The girl on the road holds up her hands as if to assure us that she poses no danger. Then she takes a tentative step towards the bus.  
'The door's locked right?!' Naomi says nervously. 'Tilly, drive around her!'  
'She may need help!' I argue. 'She doesn't appear to be a zombie. I say we just see what she has to say.'  
'No absolutely not-'  
'Are you seriously wussing out again?!' Tilly snaps at Naomi. 'It's a girl, not a creepy guy wielding a pickaxe! You didn't want to help Dirk either! Woman up you Barbie doll!'  
'She didn't want to-' Dirk begins disbelievingly, turning to Naomi. 'You were willing to let me die?! Or worse, become one of those things?!'  
'Uh, i-in fairness, I didn't know it was you out there,' Naomi says uneasily, cowering under the glare Dirk gives her. 'I didn't want to find out who was out there.'  
As Dirk shakes his head incredulously, Naomi glowers at Tilly who grins at her. I meanwhile have not been paying attention to Naomi, Tilly and Dirk. The girl in white is still approaching the bus.  
'A dagger, a fire extinguisher, Dirk the jerk's muscles,' Marty says abruptly, sounding apprehensive. 'A dagger, a fire extinguisher, Dirk the jerk's muscles. If the girl's a threat, we have weapons, we have options.'  
His statement would be amusing in different circumstances. And so would the sight of Dirk beginning to look from Naomi to Marty, unsure at whom he should be most annoyed.  
With my eyes I follow the girl in white's movements as she walks up to the driver's side of the bus. With some caution, Tilly rolls down her window a quarter of the way.  
'Please,' the girl says before any one of us can speak. 'You must help.'  
'Who are you?' Tilly asks.  
'Elena Drake,' the girl replies, her dark, disheveled hair having fallen about her face. 'I... I am the cure.'


	3. The City

'I am the cure.'  
These words echo in the air seconds after the girl called Elena has said them. Marty, Naomi, Tilly, Dirk and I gawp at her. Stood there on the road beside the bus, she stares back at us, looking ill at ease.  
She is beautiful. Slender with big eyes that are as dark as her hair. Her beauty draws me in but her words startle me. She's claiming to be the cure? So first zombies appear in Old York and then the cure does? I don't believe her. Surely if a cure had been discovered, the news reports would have mentioned it immediately to settle the fear that has only grown since the first person contracted The Sickness?  
'You think I am lying?' Elena asks us when we fail to offer her a response.  
'Yes,' Naomi replies at once.  
'Ignore her,' Tilly tells Elena. 'Can you give us some more information?'  
Elena nods and then, pulling down her turtleneck sweater, bares her neck. I am startled to see a bite mark on her skin. Naomi jumps back with a yell.  
'Do not be alarmed,' Elena says, a hint of urgency in her tone. 'Please listen to me. Give me a chance to explain.'  
'Then explain,' I say, willing to at the very least hear her out given the sincerity that I was sure had been in her voice.  
'These marks are a fortnight old,' Elena says and when Dirk, Marty, Tilly, Naomi and I appear sceptical, 'I swear it.'  
'Where are you from?' Dirk asks her.  
'Maine,' Elena replies.  
'How did you end up here?' says Marty.  
'I-I was abducted.'  
'What?' Tilly and Dirk say together.  
'Abducted?' I say, the surprise evident in my tone. 'By who?'  
'It is a story I do not wish to share stood on the road,' Elena answers solemnly before looking at me and holding up the paper file. 'All the proof of what I say in this file. Please. Allow me to travel with you all.'  
'Where are you headed?' I ask.  
'To the nearest hospital,' Elena responds. 'Please. I have been running for hiding for days. I am tired and hungry. But if you say no, I will move on and look for refuge elsewhere.'  
'Give us a moment,' I say.  
Elena nods and I turn to the others in the bus as Tilly rolls up the window so that Elena cannot hear us.  
'Well?' I say to my schoolmates. 'What do you think?'  
'I dunno,' Marty answers thoughtfully. 'Do you think she's telling the truth?'  
'It sounds like there might be something to what she's saying,' says Dirk. 'And that bite mark...'  
'If they were fresh, she would've turned already,' Tilly says, following his line of thought.  
'But how do you know for sure that they came from a zombie?' says Naomi uncertainly. 'She could've been bitten by a dog for all we know.'  
'What reason does she have to lie to us?' I say. 'I mean, say she was planning on tricking us to take our stuff, she's gonna be disappointed. All we have is our backpacks and all I have in there are my books and twenty dollars. Do any of you guys have anything worth taking?'  
They all shake their heads.  
'So shall we give her the benefit of the doubt?'  
I anticipate their reactions and Tilly and Dirk react by shrugging their acceptance. Naomi vehemently shakes her head but we all disregard this. Marty appears to be deep in contemplation.  
I watch Tilly open the door and I see the relief spread across Elena's face. She starts to walk onto the step that leads onto the bus-  
'Wait!' Marty abruptly says, causing Elena to freeze and the rest of us to frown. 'Can I- can I see that file?'  
Elena does not hesitate in handing it over. I take this to be a good sign since if she had been unwilling or made an excuse, it might've meant she had something to hide.  
When Marty opens the file, a bunch of numbers, graphs and data come into my sight. I've always hated that kind of thing. Maths is my worst subject. But they seem to intrigue Marty.  
Elena stands patiently and observes Marty perusing the file. It is chilly outside; the cold air drifting in both through the open door and the busted window and I see Elena shiver.  
'Er, any chance you could hurry it up Marty?' I say. 'So we can get going?'  
'Hold on...' Marty replies distractedly, turning the page of the file, revealing two photographs that make Dirk, Naomi, Tilly, Marty and me grimace.  
The photograph on the left is of a hideous zombie and the bite mark on its neck have been zoomed in on. The photo labelled 'Typical effects of usual bite', the bite mark has turned black and is like a small puncture hole.  
In comparison, the photograph on the right is of Elena and is labelled 'Effects of Miss Drake's bite'. Her zoomed in on bite is the same as the one she showed us moments ago and she looks the same too. There has been no change in her features whereas whoever's in the other picture is so changed in appearance that they no longer look like a normal human but like a monster. Actually, they are a monster.  
'I haven't finished reading it yet,' Marty, closing the file, says seconds later. 'But from what I have read, she appears legit.'  
'So you are saying I can come on board?' Elena asks hopefully.  
'... Yeah,' I reply with a nod. 'Come on in.'  
Elena gives me a small smile and Dirk, Marty, Naomi and I move aside to let her up. Once she has climbed the step and is inside the main part of the bus, Tilly closes the door behind her.  
Marty hands the file back to Elena and Naomi shoots her a suspicious glance before returning to her seat. Marty, Dirk and I sit back down too and Elena, after glancing round the bus, chooses to take the seat behind me. I almost offer her the seat next to me but I don't want to come across as weird or eager or anything. Sure she's pretty and seems like a cool girl and I find her Mexican sounding accent interesting. And I'm even more intrigued by her now that this whole 'cure' thing has come up. But I've never been one to be confident in expressing my feelings. When we were in ninth grade, I managed to muster my courage and asked Naomi to the dance. She laughed in my face. Then when she realised I was serious, she said no so fast that it was offensive.  
'Are we ready to go?' Tilly asks from the front of the bus.  
'Ready,' Naomi, Dirk, Marty and I respond.  
I look at Elena who did not say anything. She is staring out of the window at the dark field beyond the glass. I cannot imagine what she has been through. And there are questions I still have that need answering but as Tilly starts the bus and we begin moving again, despite my arguing that we should let Elena on board, I know that until those questions I have are answered, we cannot completely drop our guards and trust her.

*

It is another ten minutes before the turn that leads into the city comes into view. We have all introduced ourselves to Elena- Naomi reluctantly doing so- and have talked a little about the plan and have amended it so now the plan is to first take Elena to the nearest hospital- though I have no idea why she wants to go there and no-one has asked her- and then to go straight to the police station. I think once we get to the hospital, I'm going to insist on staying with Elena and the others can go on without me. Maybe I can phone my stepdad from the hospital and tell him that what Dirk, Naomi, Marty and Tilly are on their way to tell him is all true. I don't think telling him about the zombies on the phone is the smartest thing to do. I don't know if he'd believe me. Then again, it isn't as if this'd be the first time he's heard of zombies. He knows they exist and it isn't really far-fetched to think that, despite the government's reassurances, the zombies- and therefore The Sickness- has got out of Maine and spread to the next state. To our state.  
I hear the sound of the turn signal as Tilly flicks it on and the sound of a siren in the distance, though I think nothing of this because hearing a siren isn't all that unusual. I also think I hear someone screaming but I could be mistaken.  
The bus makes the turn and, while having been mostly blocked- save for the tallest skyscrapers- by tall trees on the sides of the other roads, the city of Durham comes into clearer view. And it is burning.  
Tilly slams down on the brakes for the second time this journey, making the bus lurch forward again.  
My eyes widen at the sight of the buildings that are on fire. I see people screaming- that was a scream I heard- and I see them running through across the streets of Billboard Square up ahead. I see the crowd of people part and I see what they are running from. My blood turns cold. Zombies. Right there in the middle of the Square.  
'How-how did they beat us here?'  
Dirk is the first to speak and he sounds aghast.  
'How did they do so much damage already?'  
This time, a stunned Marty is the one to pose the question.  
'Guys, we gotta get out of here!' Naomi says frantically. 'NOW! Before they see us!'  
I open my mouth but no words come out. I glance at Tilly and I know what she is going to do before she does it. I am prepared for when she slams down on the accelerator pedal and speeds towards the city.  
'TILLY!' Naomi screams. 'STOP!'  
But Tilly does not listen. The bus hurtles into Durham and skids to a stop paces from the heart of the panicking crowd who are trying to get away from the zombies chasing them.  
Elena appears stricken as Tilly glances around at the chaos-filled streets. I think she is trying to work out which way to go. Up High Street or down Main Street or down Second Street.  
A trio of police cars with flashing sirens come flying down Main Street and Tilly decides to head the way they had come.  
Driving the bus at full speed down the road, she slows down only once she is halfway along it.  
'TILLY!' Naomi screeches whilst the bus continues up the road and I wince as the screams of the people and the stench and growls of the zombies that can be heard in the background. 'I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! YOU DON'T DRIVE TOWARDS THE TROUBLE, YOU DRIVE AWAY FROM IT!'  
'So you have no interest in checking to see whether or not the zombies got your family then?!' Tilly snaps back. 'I always knew you were a selfish little-'  
'Some of the zombies clearly travelled to the city,' I interrupt, thinking fast. 'It looked like there were more of them here than in the countryside.'  
'I reckon we should split up,' says Dirk the instant I finish speaking. 'Let's each go to our own homes and make sure everyone's bite free. Yeah?'  
'No,' Naomi wails, looking terrified. 'I don't want to go alone.'  
'Fine,' Dirk sighs. 'We'll go together. You only live a couple of houses up from me anyway.'  
'Yeah,' I say, talking next, my mind on my mom and older sister. 'Yeah make sense. Dirk's idea's a good one.'  
'Well odds were that he was bound to have one sooner or later,' Marty mutters.  
It is a mark of how serious the situation is that Dirk does not threaten to punch Marty's lights out.  
Naomi, Dirk, Tilly, Marty and I all live within ten minutes of each other. So first Tilly drops Naomi and Dirk at the entrance to the Upper North side and while they begin to run in the direction of the townhouses, Tilly carries on until we arrive in the Grammar District.  
Marty and Tilly live on the same street and I live a couple of streets over. When the bus stops for me to get out, I stand from my seat and, to my surprise, Elena stands too.  
'May I come with you?' she asks me.  
Startled since no girl has come home with me before, I hesitate for a second and then nod.  
'You take good care of her,' Tilly warns me once Elena and I have stepped off the bus. 'She may be our ticket out of this mess.'  
And with that, she closes the bus door and the bus goes speeding up the road. I do not watch it go. Instead I turn and run up the street, Elena, her file clutched under her arm, on my heels.  
Maple Drive is a suburban street and my house is the very last one on it. As I run, I am somewhat relieved to find that nothing appears to be out of place. In the fading light, the houses and gardens look like they always do and none of them are on fire.  
Only now do I realise what a stupid thing I did by leaving the fire extinguisher behind. I didn't even think abut bringing it. The only thought on my mind was getting to my family. But it would've been handy to bring along a weapon just in case any zombies are lurking around.  
When I reach my house, I do not hesitate in throwing open the garden gate and darting up the path to the front door. Mom's favourite garden gnome stands smiling inanely beside the welcome mat and on the mat's other side there is a plant pot in which a fern sits surrounded by stones. One of those stones is a fake and it is darker than the rest. Grabbing it, I pull it open and turn it upside down. The spare key inside the fake stone falls into my other hand.  
Throwing the fake stone back into the pot, I do not waste time in shoving the key into the front door. When I hear door unlock, I throw it open and hasten into the hallway, Elena entering cautiously behind me. Hearing her grunt behind me, I look back to see that she has lifted the garden gnome and has it held under her other arm.  
'When walking into potential danger, a wise person does not go unarmed,' she says in answer to my questioning look.  
The image of her bashing in a zombie's head with the gnome is one I barely give thought to. Turning back round, I stride through the neat looking hallway. My mom's a neat freak and, according to her, everything has a place and everything is to be kept in its place.  
'MOM?!' I yell, my heart starting to hammer. 'VAL?!'  
No-one responds. 'They're okay,' I tell myself. 'Wherever they are, they're alright.'  
I search every room downstairs, calling out their names. When I get no reply, I sprint upstairs and do the same. Nothing for the most part.  
The final two rooms on the upstairs landing are Mom's and my older sister Valerie's. Mom's room is empty and now I feel dread overcoming me. She was not working at the hospital today and she would've already picked up from Valerie from her acting school. They're usually back home by now. But today is no longer a usual day.  
They're supposed to be here,' I exclaim, anxiousness evident in my tone. 'Where are they-'  
'COLE?!'  
The sound of my name being hollered has me breaking off. I recognize that voice and my heart gives a jolt.  
'Stay here,' I tell Elena.  
Without waiting for her reply, I bolt from the room. Across the landing and to the top of the stairs  
At the bottom of the staircase, I see a figure glancing around the downstairs hallway and I exhale a breath, feeling my heartbeat return to normal.  
'Mom!' I call.  
As I begin to descend the stairs, she turns round. The worry etched up her face lifts the instant she lays eyes upon me. Once I step off the staircase and stand in front of her, she pulls me into a bone-crushing hug.  
'You're okay,' she says, cradling my head. 'You're alright. Oh my baby boy.'  
And she actually begins to sob. Acutely aware of Elena being upstairs, I cannot help but cringle, Even in a zombie pandemic, I have no doubt she will find some way to embarrass me.  
'Mom,' I say, attempting to pull myself free of her embrace. 'I-I'm okay. Are you?'

'Y-yes,' she says, letting me go. 'If you overlook the fact that there are zombies running around the city-'  
'Well, I'm not okay.'  
At the voice that interrupts Mom, the voice I know to be Valerie's, I glance over my shoulder and see her entering the house, an expression of alarm on her features.  
'There are zombies out there!' she says dramatically whilst Mom dries her eyes. 'Actual freaking zombies! Cole, what did you do?!'  
'Me?' I say incredulously. 'How can you blame this one on me?!'  
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Valerie has a tendency to blame me when something goes wrong in her life. And she has a tendency to exaggerate and overdramatise almost everything. I think it's the actress in her.  
'You're the one who used to say how cool it would be if a zombie apocalypse actually happened! Well are you happy now?! Cos we could be headed that way little brother! Go read some more zombie comic books why don't you?!'  
'Comic books?' comes Elena's sudden voice from behind me. 'Ah I see. You are one of those American nerds Cole, yes?'  
'Yes,' Valerie replies instantly as I look to see Elena standing on the steps, the garden gnome and her file still in her grasp.  
'Oh!' Mom exclaims at the sight of Elena. 'H-hello there. Erm, Cole. Son. Why was there a girl upstairs with you and why is she holding Gnomeo?'  
'Uh,' I reply with a glance at Elena. 'Mom, Val. This is Elena. She, er, she's-'  
'I am Cole's girlfriend,' Elena interrupts.  
At her words, I choke on my own tongue. Val's mouth drops open and Mom seems taken aback for a moment. Then she bursts into tears again.  
'My- baby- boo's- first- girlfriend,' she says through sobs. 'How- wonderful- and- yet- such- bad- timing- since- we- could- all- be- zombie- food- before- l-long!'  
Told you she'd find a way to embarrass me.  
'Mom,' I say awkwardly, silently willing her to stop crying as Elena stares uncomfortably from Mom to me to Val who is still gaping at her. 'I'm glad you're alive. What happened here?'  
'Dunno really,' Val answers while Mom tries to control her sobs. 'They seemed to come out of nowhere, the zombies.'  
'The minute I put down your phone call this evening, informing me you had detention you naughty boy,' Mom continues in a watery voice, addressing me, 'it started. There was an explosion and the first building was aflame. Then the next one. Then the next one. And in all the chaos the zombies emerged. It's so awful! Zombies for crying out loud!'  
'H-have you spoken to Stan yet?' I ask, my throat having gone dry due to what Mom had said.  
'Yes,' Mom said, nodding. 'He said that a news bulletin was going to be aired by the Chief of Police, instructing all civilians to stay indoors so he told me to straight home once I'd fetched Valerie. He said not to remain in the Square since that is where the zombies were and that is where the police were going to open fire on them. He said they'd announce it on TV once it was safe and the zombies were all gone. He said you'd be fine at the school. I tried ringing you but you didn't answer. That's not like you so I worried that something had happened. Val thought you might've come home... why didn't you stay at the school?!'  
'Cos there are zombies there,' I say quietly.  
'What?!' Mom and Val gasp.  
With a deep breath, I proceed to tell them everything that had happened at the school. From the power going out in the detention classroom to Mr Carlton getting bitten and becoming a zombie.  
'I am sorry you had to experience all of that,' Elena, having descended the stairs to stand next to me and having lowered Gnomeo to the floor, says, laying a gentle hand on my shoulder.  
Her touch sends a shiver down my spine and I am reminded of what she had said.  
'I am Cole's girlfriend.'  
Obviously it is a lie and I wonder why she said it. However, I cannot deny that I liked the way those words sounded leaving her mouth.  
'So Carlton's dead,' Val mutters after a few seconds of apprehensive silence. 'Well I won't pretend I liked him cos I never did but what a way to go. And what a worse thing to come back as.'  
Her statement has Elena shifting uncomfortably and, though I notice this, I do not comment on it. There are more pressing matters to attend to.  
'Mom,' I say, turning to her. 'So that's the plan? To wait indoors until we hear it's safe?'  
'Yes love,' she says before facing Elena. 'Tea dear?'  
And before Elena can answer, Mom takes her arm and leads her in the direction of the kitchen. With a look at me, Val follows after them.  
Running a hand through my hair, I glimpse the file under Elena's arm as she is steered away. I realise that if we're going to be stuck in this house until further notice, perhaps tonight is the time to ask her those questions that have been in my mind since she sat down on the bus.


	4. Evacuation

'This is Charles Charleson with the nine o'clock news. Breaking reports this hour. The Sickness is no longer quarantined in Maine as what the public refer to as 'zombies' terrorise Old York's Billboard Square. Citizens are being advised to get indoors and remain there until the all clear is given. Citizens are being told not to panic! DO NOT PANIC!'  
Sat on the couch in my mom's living room, I watch Charles Charleson, the elderly news anchor, deliver the grim news.  
'Too late dude,' I mutter, staring at the TV screen. 'Already panicked.'  
'And now,' Charleson continues bleakly, 'let's go live to Billboard Square. Warning: the scenes you are about to see are thought to be of a graphic and violent nature.'  
The scene on the TV changes and I clutch the side of the couch in shock. The image being shown is of Billboard Square but it is the Square I saw earlier on the bus, not the Square I've growin up knowing. Buildings are still on fire. People are still screaming and running. There are several dead, bleeding bodies on the roads and streets.  
In the background, a number of armoured cops can be seen preparing to shoot at a group of snarling zombies from behind their police cars. These zombies have pustules all over their bodies. It's disgusting. I lean forward in anticipation of the cops putting the zombies down.  
The cops aim their guns and I watch the bullets be fired. I watch them strike the zombies. But it immediately becomes clear that the bullets have no effect. They merely ricochet off of the zombies and seemingly serve to do nothing more than anger them.  
The cops keep firing. The zombies roar in fury. And then they begin to sprint towards the cops, the bullets still doing nothing to harm them.  
When they reach the police cars, the zombies leap onto them. I see the cops, still shooting, back up. I see the zombies jump through the air. But before I can see if they land on the cops, suddenly the TV is switched off.  
Glancing over my shoulder, I see that Mom has the remote in hand. She is trembling and her face has paled.  
'S-Stan is out there,' she whispers. 'He promised me he'd be back for dinner this morning. He-he'd better not end up being some zombie's dinner! Oh and dinner will be r-ready in a few minutes Cole dear.'  
And with that, she bustles away and back into the kitchen, wiping her eyes with the apron tied around her waist.  
Once she is gone, I contemplate switching the TV back on. But I have seen enough bloodshed for one day.  
I place my head in my hands and think of what I saw. Bullets which would've been enough to take down any normal human had not even penetrated the skin of the zombies.  
'I can understand how you are feeling.'  
Hearing Elena's voice but not having heard her approach, I look up to see her standing beside the couch.  
'I know people say that just to say it sometimes,' she goes on, 'but I mean it. May I sit?'  
She gestures to a vacant space on the couch and I nod. Once she has sat, we lapse into a silence that is not uncomfortable. I am the one to break it moments later.  
'I have some questions,' I say without looking at Elena.  
'... I expected that you would,' she replies quietly. 'Go ahead and ask them Cole. I will not lie to you.'  
Her response is encouraging. I am glad that she has not taken offense.  
'I won't ask you how you were bitten,' I say, turning to meet Elena's gaze, 'but... will you tell me what happened after that? How you found out you were the cure?'  
I hold my breath, hoping I had not overstepped the mark. My heart sinks when Elena looks away from me, dropping her eyes to the floor.  
'My father was with me when I was bitten,' she begins solemnly and I am glad that she is answering me. 'He tried to protect me from the zombie that attacked me but couldn't. And after I had been bitten, there was a lot of pain. But I did not die. And, from what we know, you have to die before you become one of those monsters.  
'My-my father was a doctor and when he saw that I did not die or show any signs that I was going to die or turn into a zombie in any other way that perhaps had not been discovered yet, he took me to the hospital at which he worked. While relieved that I was alive and relatively fine, save for the bite marks and the trauma of being bitten, Father was baffled. He did several tests on me and consulted with one of his colleagues, Doctor Patel who was bemused at the fact that there was no hint of the virus in my system. Somehow I had not contracted it. My father and Doctor Patel closely monitored me and my father started compiling the file I carry. It was concluded that there are certain antibodies in my rare AB Negative blood and that is the reason why my body rejects the virus's effects. By finding others like me Father believed vaccines could be made. But they were only somewhat closer to finding a solution to the pandemic because Father also had the same blood type but they found no such antibodies in his blood. They labelled me the cure and hoped there were more like me out there.'  
Elena pauses and I sit listening intently, taking in her words. I have a feeling she would continue and she does seconds on.  
'I do not wish to believe that Doctor Patel betrayed my father and I but he did,' she says sadly. 'No-one but the three of us knew that I was the cure and we were told not to share what we knew with anyone else. But... I was in the hospital a week ago when members of The Clan burst into my room. They knew what I was. They tried to take me from the hospital bed where I was being prepped for blood extraction to fashion the first vaccine but my father walked in and discovered them. He tried to keep them from taking me but... they shot him in the head. Right in front of- of me.'  
Her voice breaks on this final word and my heart breaks for her.  
'I struggled against them but they knocked me unconscious whilst another one of them ransacked my father's office. When I woke, I was in a cage and I discovered that my abductors had found the notes my father had been making on the virus, on the zombies and on my condition since I had been bitten. Doctor Patel was supposed to help my father with the blood extraction that day... but he never showed.'  
'H-how did you escape?' I ask, surprising myself at how I almost whisper the question.  
'The Clan are a criminal gang comprised of thieves and drug dealers. They reside in New York. When I was caged and it did not look like there was an escape, their leader, a brute by the name of Cliff- he wore these boots with spurs, the sound of which had me gritting my teeth- anyway, he took great pleasure in telling me The Clan's plan. According to Cliff, The Clan members had come to Maine after finding out about me. They intended to hold me up for ransom, sending a message to the President, telling her what I was- and how rare I was- with shots of pages of my father's file as proof. The situation in Maine is bad Cole as you may have been shown here via reports. The Clan believed they could take advantage of the President's loyalty to her people and her willingness to help them. They believed the President could not afford to lose me since maybe there weren't others like me.'  
'What did they-' I start, feeling bad for her, 'what did they want in exchange for you?'  
'What people usually want when they demand ransom for someone's freedom,' Elena replies like it's obvious. 'Money. And lots of it. The Clan don't care about The Sickness but they'll benefit from it if they can. They could not have predicted the zombies crossing into your state. They were transporting me to New York and while we were passing through this state, I escaped with my file in hand. They could not have predicted that either I am sure.'  
Elena falls silent. And this time the silence that descends between us is a depressing one. I glance at her and she is staring at her fingers which are interlocked in her lap. Earlier she was sympathising with what I had been through but I can't even begin to imagine what she's gone through. Finding out she's the cure, seeing her father get shot, getting abducted, escaping into a state that is not her own.  
I wish I could say something to comfort her. But everything I think of seems hollow. I think of asking her why she said she was my girlfriend, why she didn't tell Mom and Val the truth. That she was the cure. But somehow it doesn't seem appropriate right now. So I just decide to repeat the words Elena said to me in the hallway before.  
'I am sorry you had to experience all that.'  
Looking up at me, Elena gives me a small, tired smile as we hear Mom call us for dinner.

*

By the time that midnight arrives, there is still no word from Stan. Mom is pacing the living room, her apprehension plain. Her cellphone is pressed to her ear and she is leaving Stan another message since he has not answered any of her others. He hasn't replied to her texts either and each time Mom has tried to call him it has gone to voicemail. 'It isn't like him not to answer,' Mom has said more than once.  
Sleep is the last thing on any of our minds. Val is stood on the other side of the room and has been on the phone with Logan, her boyfriend since eleven.  
Elena is perusing her file on the couch, her expression grim. I am stood by the door, on the wall phone, trying to get through to Precinct Twelve in the hope that I can find out if Stan is still alive and what is going on with regards to the zombie situation. Val tried switching the TV on earlier but the signal appears to be down cos there was just feedback running across every channel.  
So far no-one has picked up and it doesn't look like anyone is going to.  
Frustrated, I slam the phone down. I wish I had my cellphone on me but it's back at the school. I don't even know where Carlton put mine, Naomi, Dirk, Tilly and Marty's cells after he confiscated them.  
I have Marty's number in my phone. We swapped digits when we had to do a Science project together last year and I never deleted his. If I had my cell, I could call him to see how his family were and if he and Tilly had made it back to their homes alright. I hope they did. And, forgetting all the stupid high school cliquey stuff, I hope Naomi and Dirk did too.  
Mom and Val hang up their phones at the same time. And the instant they do so, a klaxon sounds.  
Val, Mom and I grimace at the loud blaring but we know what it means. Emergency. Evacuation.  
We react instantly. Mom and Val stride out of the room as Elena gives me a puzzled look.  
'Come on,' I tell her hastily. 'We gotta go.'  
I can see that she is still confused but she does not question me. When I turn and head after Mom and Val, Elena follows.  
Striding out into the hallway, I find Mom grabbing her car keys from the bowl on the table by the front door while Val throws the door open, revealing darkness since it is the very early hours of the morning. Val and Mom hasten from the house and Elena and I move after them.  
Once we are out the door, Mom shuts it behind us and locks it.  
The klaxon has not stopped blaring. All along the darkened Maple Drive, doors are being opened and people are running out of their homes. I watch many of my neighbours race to pile into their cars while Mom goes and unlocks the doors of her Vauxhall Cavalier. I notice that her hands are trembling.  
Mom gets into the front driver's seat and yells at Val, Elena and I to get into the car. Elena, Val and I do, Val in front with Mom and Elena and I in the back. Even in our current predicament, Mom reminds us to buckle up and sets off only once we have.  
Getting out of the street proves to be a challenge as several family-filled cars seem determined not to be the last to exit.  
When we finally get out of Maple Drive, I exhale a shaky breath. The klaxon was first put into place during the Second World War and its purpose is to alert the citizens who hear it. This is the first time it has been heard by the vast majority of us (save for the World War Two veterans). We have always been told that if ever we hear the klaxon, we are to drive straight to Region Station where the trains will take us to shelter in place, wherever that has been set up.  
'He'll be there,' I hear Mom muttering beneath her breath. 'He will.'  
I figure she is talking about Stan.  
Leaning back in my seat, I think of how serious the situation have become given how quickly things have changed. First we were to remain indoors and now we are being moved to a location of mass safety.  
The tension in the car is palpable. I see Elena clutch the file tightly in her hand as she stares at the road Mom is driving down. I have not forgotten that it is a hospital that Elena wanted to get to and now I understand why. I want to get her there but it might be easier said than done. The doctors would've heard the klaxon too and I assume they'll be heading to the Station as well. Maybe Elena realises this which is why she is not saying anything. Hopefully we'll be able to consult with a doctor at the shelter and show him Elena's file. Perhaps the doctor'll even be able to ask the crowd if anyone has AB Negative blood which could increase the amount of vaccines they can make, provided those people had the necessary antibodies in their blood. Mom did always say to look on the bright side.  
The roads down which Mom is driving are filled with vehicles. but this is nothing compared to the scene when we near Billboard Square. Cars horns are honking loudly and the roads here are packed with more traffic than I've ever witnessed.  
'I've never known the roads to be this busy,' Mom, gazing round at the cars that are in front, behind and on either side of her, remarks, echoing my thought. 'But I've never known there to be a citywide evacuation before either.'  
'Logan says he had a dream like this once,' Val remarks, her eyes on her cellphone on which she has been texting Logan since we left Maple Drive. 'He's wondering if he's a dream psychic.'  
I cannot help rolling my eyes. Logan's pretty much the guy version of Naomi. He's long haired, self absorbed and dumb as a brick. Actually, that's offensive to bricks. Sorry bricks. Seriously though, I don't know what Naomi sees in Logan.  
Minutes pass and the traffic moves slowly. Region Station is situated at the edge of Billboard Square and I can see the Square at the bottom of the road we're on. The fires appear to have been put out but something doesn't seem right. Usually the electronic billboards that hang upon the buildings are lit up all day long. And none of the streetlamps are on either. I wonder if the power has gone out here too, like it did at the school. The radiant moon and the headlights of the cars around us partially light up the surroundings.  
I shudder at the thought of the zombies hiding in the darkness. The traffic continues to move slowly.  
Then suddenly, things go from bad to worse.  
Without any warning, from out of the blackness, they come. Scurrying. Dragging their bodies.  
Their decaying bodies are lit up by the headlights when they walk into their luminosity. And by the moon. The zombies have arrived.  
There is nowhere for us to go in the car as we are boxed in by other vehicles. However, the driver behind us doesn't seem to care as all of a sudden they rear-end us, perhaps in their desperation to get away. Elena and I are launched forward by the hit. I am glad that Mom told us to put our seatbelts on otherwise the impact would've been greater.  
The situation is now dire. Several things are happening at once. Other drivers are doing what the driver behind us did but they are not stopping, driving the car they struck forward into the one in front of it, trying to force the cars on so that they can make room for themselves to drive out of the traffic jam. Their efforts are in vain. There isn't a way to drive out of this mess.  
Some people are locking their doors, fear upon their faces as the zombies roam between the cars. A few of the zombies leap onto the bonnets and the roofs of some of the vehicles, terrifying the inhabitants inside.  
I watch as a zombie breaks the front window of a car and drags out by the scruff of the neck, the screaming driver who the zombie then throws onto the road and tears into. This happens in a few more cars.  
People do not wait to suffer the same fate. A number of them flee their cars and begin to run in the direction of Billboard Square. I see a woman carrying her young child down the road and I hope they make it. Others are not so lucky. They do not get far before the zombies spot them and give chase or else jump onto them from atop a car. Shrieking the people go down. But within seconds, those of them that were bit, are rising back up as zombies.  
'We have to make a break for it,' I say quickly. 'It's the only way we're getting out of this.'  
Before Mom, Val or Elena can reply, the decision is made for them as a zombie leaps onto the bonnet of Mom's car. We see it growl at us on the other side of the windshield. Val screams and continues to scream when, thrusting a fist forward, the zombie breaks the windshield's glass and attempts to grab her.  
Together, Val, Mom, Elena and I unfasten our seatbelts and throw open the car's doors. Together we almost hurl ourselves onto the road, the stench of the zombies hitting us right away.  
Our destination is the Square and without delay, we set off towards it, avoiding the zombies and looking away from those who are mutilating or else biting the citizens of our state.  
My breath is ragged as I run and so is Elena's behind me. I know my legs are going to hurt tomorrow- if I make it to tomorrow- because running is not my thing.  
I do not know how I make it to the Station. I do not know how I make into to Billboard Square. There are a couple of close calls. One of them being when a zombie glanced up at me from the guts of the person it was feasting on, its mouth covered in blood, when I ran past. It must've been enjoying its meal too much because it chose to ignore me and went back to chewing on the dead person's intestines.  
Mom, Val and Elena make it to the Station unharmed too. The four of us all hunch over, breathing hard. I clutch the stitch in my side. There are other people here too. People who made it. And more are racing this way. The klaxon has been wailing all this time, mixing in with the cries of those who have fallen prey to the zombies.  
I wonder where the cops are. If the zombies have gotten them all. I assume the cops were hunting down the zombies in the hours that I was In Mom's house. And I wonder if the zombies ended up hunting them.  
Not much information has been released on the zombies to those outside of Maine. I guess because the government believed it was only their concern. Citizens of Maine were told to keep the information they were given to themselves but some blogger from over there uploaded a video to the internet, revealing that he and the rest of his state fellows were being told to keep quiet to avoid the entire country or even world finding out the truth of their predicament and panicking. He said he would post more about the zombies in his next video. But there never was another video. I always thought the authorities had shut him down.  
Even though there is distance between me and the zombies now I can still hear people's screams. But I attempt to block them out as Mom, having glanced round at Val, Elena and I to check we were still with her, tells us to run for the station.  
We do, joining the frantic horde of people heading the same way. Behind me, I hear the screech of wheels and I glance back to see that armoured trucks have arrived in the Square, out of which armoured cops are hastening. However, their weapons are not guns but muskets and as a group of them go and position themselves between the Station and the chaos occurring in the traffic jam, more of them sprint into the chaos. Whilst they run, I am startled to see them lighting something at the end of what appear to be bottles of what may be alcohol with what I reckon are cigarette lighters, creating a flaming weapon, the likes of which I have never seen before.  
The group that has positioned themselves line up their muskets and I wonder if they are actually going to fire into the crowd. With all the people dashing part, they could easily hit one of them and then there's the fact that the last time I saw cops attempt to shoot the zombies, they weren't having any luck. Therefore, are they really expecting to have more luck now?  
'Cole!' I hear Mom yell. 'Come on!'  
Turning back round, I discover that Mom, Val and Elena have kept moving towards the Station. I spot them several people in front of me. I begin pushing my way towards them but it is not easy getting through the horde. They seem unwilling to part as we all go in the same direction.  
The people at the front of the crowd descend into the subway station and those behind them stream in after them and so on. Mom, Elena and Val step to the side to wait for me and I'm just about to reach them when I hear one of the cops yell 'FIRE!' and I cannot help looking back just in time to see the cops shoot their muskets. To my surprise, what shoots out of the muskets are not musket balls but arrows that are on fire.  
The arrows fly through the air and strike the zombies that I see have left the traffic jam behind and are trying to get to the survivors heading to the Station. It appears that where bullets failed, fire does not as the zombies are set aflame. They must not feel pain because they do not make a sound but they stop. And they fall. And I turn and I run again.  
Down the subway station steps with Mom, Elena and Val by my side, we join those gathered in the heart of the station. Children are crying. People are shaking uncontrollably and some of them are making their bewilderment plain. One father, ignoring his wife's pleas for him to quieten down, is shouting at the lack of safety preparation and expressing his fury at the shambles of an evacuation plan.  
Mom is back on her cellphone. Staring at it for several seconds, she stuffs it back into the pocket of her jeans with a huff.  
'I do not care if the city has been overrun by zombies,' Mom says crossly, 'if I find out that Stan has been ignoring my messages on purpose, he's gonna be sleeping on the couch!'  
'Perspective Mother,' I say with a look at Elena who gives me a small smile as she tucks a lock of hair behind her ear.  
Mom responds with a heavy sigh, gazing around at the crowd.  
I stare at the people around me too, seeing if I can spot Tilly, Marty, Naomi or Dirk. At this point, I don't even know if any of them made it to the Station.  
I don't see them but then my eyes fall on, of all people, Logan.  
My hope that he does not spot us is proved futile as he does. And then he's running over and embracing Val.  
'Babe,' he says when he lets her go. 'Zombies! Can you believe it?'  
Val shakes her head, her expression anxious. Logan notices this and cups her face.  
'It's gonna be alright love,' he tells her gently. 'You know that dream I had? We all made it out okay in the end.'  
'Really?' Val asks and I almost scoff that she's taking him seriously.  
'Yeah,' says Logan with a nod, 'until everyone else either died or became a zombie and I was the only one left.'  
His words have Val's eyes widening and she appears even more anxious than before. Scared even. Did I say that Logan was as dumb as bricks? My mistake. I should've said dumber than bricks.  
People are still rushing into the Station which is getting even more crowded. The cops outside must be holding off the zombies. Otherwise I bet the zombies too would have entered the Station and they'd have an easier time picking us off due to us all being cramped together in one space.  
'This is how it began in Maine,' Elena says suddenly.  
She is close enough to me that I can hear her in the noise of the chattering and bewildered people around us. I turn to her and she gives me a lost, despairing look. Again, I am at a loss as to what to say. But before I can think of anything, reaching her arm forward, she slips her hand into mine.  
Startled, I drop my eyes to our entwined hands and I feel my neck heat up. Inwardly I plead with my hand not to sweat. I am not sure what to do. Do I close my fingers around hers? Do I squeeze her hand in a comforting manner? My hand hangs awkwardly in hers. I have no experience with this sort of thing so I am unsure as to what the proper thing to do is. With an awkward cough, I choose to close my fingers around hers.  
Mom sees Elena and I holding hands but to her it must seem only normal since she thinks Elena and I are a couple. I swallow and rack my brain for something, anything to say. However, I am interrupted by the sound of movement on the tracks at the top of the station. I cannot see to what the sound belongs yet as it's coming from somewhere down the tunnel but it's gotta be the trains, one of which is gonna take me away from Durham. From the city I've called home my entire life.


	5. Countryside

The train I am on has been rolling along the track for the past hour. It is following another train and there are more behind it. The trains are more spacious than the ones that are usually available for us to travel on. I guess the authorities have put some thought into how they would get civilians out of the city should the need ever arise.  
All the trains are full of people. In mine, women are weeping for the ones they lost in the zombie attack outside Billboard Square and men are sat looking stoic.  
Val, Mom, Elena, Logan and I are sat together at the back of the train. Elena's hand is still in mine. None of us have exchanged a word since we boarded. I have no idea where exactly we are going.  
Exhaling a breath, I lean my head back and close my eyes. When the trains arrived, from each one a cop stepped out and one of them informed us of the procedure we were to follow. He said there was to be no pushing and no shoving and that we were all to approach the trains in an orderly fashion. He said it didn't matter how scared we were. Right then all that mattered was getting everyone to safety. He told us to spread out and head towards one of the trains with the aim being to avoid overcrowding as much as possible.  
I guess he had to have known that when evacuating an entire city, overcrowding was not something you could really avoid. But it appears that nobody has been trampled so I suppose their plan worked.  
Having passed through the dark Region Station tunnel, the trains have been out in the open for a while. I'm on edge and staring out of the train window, the glass of which blocks out much of the sound of the still blaring klaxon. I almost expect zombies to come out from between the buildings passing by.  
This part of Durham appears untouched. It doesn't seem like the zombies- or the cops trying to stop them- have caused destruction here yet. I don't even know If the zombies have gotten here or if they will come here.  
However, the authorities are not taking any chances. There are people running along the streets, probably going to catch their own trains. This is a citywide evacuation after all. We're all in this together and these people are lucky that they are being evacuated before the zombies destroy the streets on which I'm watching them run. They don't want to witness what I and the other people of the Grammar District and the surrounding boroughs saw when the zombies appeared in the midst of that traffic jam. I have a sinking feeling that incident is going to haunt my dreams, making them into nightmares, for time to come.  
Some more time passes. Mom is tapping her foot impatiently on the train floor, also staring out of the window. Stan still hasn't replied to her messages and I wouldn't blame her if staring at her phone was driving her crazy. It was hard for me to get used to Stan at first. Mom remarried twelve years after Dad died of cancer. Val was the first one to call Stan Dad. I was suspicious of him from the first day Mom introduced Val and I to him but he made a real effort to get to know Val and I. Eventually- and grudgingly in the beginning- he began to grow on me. Now I call him Dad too but, as nice as Stan is, he'll never replace my actual Dad. And Stan knows that.  
Not knowing whether he's alive or not though is making me uneasy too. So I understand how Mom is feeling.  
'Attention! Attention please!'  
The sudden voice has most of those in the train gazing around for the source of it. Then, with the voice continuing to speak, someone shouts that it's coming from the tannoy on the roof.  
We look that way and strain our ears to listen amid the crying women. Thus far, no-one has had the heart to interrupt their grieving process.  
'We will be arriving at our destination in an hour's time,' the voice continues, unaffected by the groans that leave the mouths of several people who are getting tired of being on a packed train. 'Thank you for your patience.'  
The voice dies away. People start to mutter about what was said. Val leans her head on Logan's shoulder and Logan puts his arm around her. I glance at Elena out of the corner of my eye and see her gingerly touching, with her hand that is not holding mine, the part of her turtleneck behind which her bite mark is concealed. I don't think she's aware of me looking at her. A couple of seconds on, she pulls up the neck of her sweater, as if she's worried that someone'll see the bite on her neck. If that happens, she would have some explaining to do. If that happens, I'll do what I can to help her out.  
Feeling awkward for staring at her, I look away. But I give her hand a reassuring squeeze and I hope she takes some comfort from the gesture. Outside it has started to rain.

*

I watch the falling rain run down the outside of the window. Having left the city behind, the trains are now passing through the countryside. Elena slipped her hand out of mine ten or so minutes ago. Currently her head is leaning against the back of her seat and she is facing towards me with her eyes closed. I do not think she is asleep though.  
'Finally!'  
Mom's sudden voice has me turning to her with a frown. She is reading something on her phone. I wait for her to finish and once she does she looks up, a measure of what is plainly relief upon her features.  
'Stan,' Mom says by way of explanation. 'He finally replied. Apparently he's at the shelter, getting it ready. He switched his phone off to avoid distractions. But he's alive-'  
Abruptly, Mom breaks off as the train comes to a sudden stop with a screeching of brakes. Confused voices start up all along the train and several people, myself included, glance up at the tannoy, expecting an announcement of some kind.  
But no announcement comes. Bewildered, I glance out of the rain stained window. The train in front of us has stopped too and, craning my neck and pressing my cheek against the window's cool glass, I try to see why they and we are no longer moving. Have we arrived at the shelter? Is it here in the middle of the countryside? But it hasn't been an hour yet.  
The rain is not falling so heavily that I cannot see outside. I can. And what I see is a blockade of black trucks further up the track, blocking the trains' path. And I see people men with red balaclavas around their mouths standing in front of the trucks. A couple of them are pointing rifles at the first train.  
'What is going on?'  
Elena's eyes have opened. I do not answer her question, continuing to stare out the window.  
A number of the men in balaclavas have started approaching the trains, their guns in hand. I wonder who they are and why they have made the trains halt. They remind me of gang members from those gangster movies. Do they not know about the evacuation? Or the zombie situation?  
'Cole?' Mom calls uncertainly. 'Can you see anything?'  
'There are men,' I reply, still looking out the window at the advancing males. 'They've got balaclavas and rifles.'  
I hear Elena gasp and I look round at her, noticing that her face has rapidly lost colour.  
'Elena?' I say.  
'W-what colour balaclavas?' she whispers.  
'Red,' I reply, feeling strangely like she already knew this.  
'... The Clan.'  
Elena's voice is low enough that I almost do not hear her. But I do and I feel my blood run cold as I remember what Elena had said at Mom's place. What she had said about The Clan. The Clan that had abducted her.  
'Are you sure?' I ask her, quiet enough that Mom, Val and Logan cannot overhear me.  
'They're here for me,' Elena, after leaning into me,' says quietly, her voice trembling. 'I am valuable to them. I have already told you why. If they find me, they'll take me with them. And they'll kill everyone else on this train just because they can.'  
Her words have my mind racing. Granted I haven't known her long but this is the most scared I've seen Elena look. Zombies and now thugs? What else is going to happen today?  
All along the train, passengers are asking the same thing. Why have we stopped?  
I see Elena glance at the emergency exit, paces from us. I can tell she is doing some quick thinking. I'm not going to let The Clan take her. I doubt I could live with the guilt if I sat by and let her that happen.  
However, from what Elena said...  
I can't let Mom die. Or Val. Or even Logan. And I don't want anyone else on this train to be killed either.  
If The Clan doesn't find Elena on any of the trains, they have no reason to harm anyone. Though they do not sound the type to need a reason.  
Elena starts to get up, her eyes still on the emergency exit. I follow her gaze. Is she seriously considering jumping from the train? I mean, if it's between that and getting abducted again...  
I stare out of the window again. Two of The Clan members are metres from the first train and a trio of other members are heading towards the second. The train I am in. The train the one they are seeking is in.  
I look at Elena and I know that I'm not going to let her go on her own. It's weird but I don't feel like I should leave her to fend for herself. She is not from around here. I don't know how well she knows Old York or if she knows it at all. I feel like I should help her. And that includes protecting her from The Clan.  
But I can't leave Mom and Val behind. If The Clan searches this train, Mom and Val's safety is not guaranteed. This is my dilemma and I am contemplating what to do when the roar sounds.  
Everyone freezes, even The Clan members. There is a moment of bewilderment and then silence. My shoulders tensed, I glance back out of the window at The Clan who I see are looking over at the hills on the right. I wonder if the roar- which was so loud and horrible that it was audible even through the glass of the window- came from that direction.  
As I watch them, clearly thinking nothing more of the roar, The Clan thugs return their attention to the trains. The first two step onto the first train while the next three resume striding towards mine and more members head for the other trains.  
But then another roar sounds. And this time, when all those on the right hand side of the trains glance hastily out of the windows at the hills and the Clan looks too, we watch something emerge from beyond the hills. My mouth falls open.  
It is a zombie, that much I'm sure of right away. However, it is larger the the other zombies I saw. Much larger. It has to be at least seven feet in height and its skin is a dark grey. There are pustules all over its face and body and it is completely naked and plainly a man.  
'Stage Two,' Elena, who fell back onto her seat at the sound of the first roar, whimpers, her eyes also on the zombie.  
'W-what's stage Two?' I ask stupidly, given that the answer is obvious.  
'That,' Elena replies, gesturing to the zombie.  
Mom, Val and Logan have moved over to join me and Elena so that they can see what is going on and several other people, all along the train, are also moving to the right side so they can look out the windows.  
People cry out in shock as the zombie begins to stomp towards the trains. Immediately The Clan members by the trucks open fire on him and the members by the trains turn to help. The zombie gives another roar, louder and angrier than the other two, as he is hit by an array of bullets.  
It's weird but I'm actually voting for the zombie and I'm glad when the bullets bounce off him, the way I had seen them do when the cops in Billboard Square had shot the zombies there.  
The Clan is not letting up and still the zombie is approaching them. Another roar has my head whipping back to the hills and this time it is from behind the opposite set of hills that a second zombie appears.  
More gasps of horror resound in the train I'm in as we watch this second male zombie, who looks to be only a couple of inches shorter than the first and in the exact same condition, make its way to its fellow. From the way it walks, eagerly almost, it is like it is keen to include itself in the action.  
The Clan is still shooting at the first zombie but now some of them have turned their fire on the second zombie. This is like a scene from an action horror movie. My heart is racing as I look from one zombie to the other.  
I expect the zombies to work together to take out The Clan who is trying to take them out. Or perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part.  
That is not what happens. When the first zombie spots the second zombie, it throws its head back ad gives a growl and then it is running towards the second zombie. And the second zombie is running towards the first. And their arms are extended in front of them. And The Clan has not stopped shooting.  
When the two zombies reach one another, they literally collide into each other. And they begin to tear into one another, ripping and scratching and clawing at each other's faces and upper bodies.  
I cannot believe what I am seeing. I glance at Elena who has come from zombie infested Maine and may be unfortunately familiar with what we are witnessing. But she looks as bewildered as I am.  
The Clan has started slowly approaching the two battling zombies, like they want to get rid of them in case they decide to stop their fighting and refocus on them.  
I hope the train drivers have enough sense to start driving again now that there are distractions and The Clan's attention is no longer on us. Thankfully they do. The first train sets off, faster than it had been going before and the other trains follow, going faster too. The first train rams into The Clan's trucks, tossing them out of the way, the impact of the hit flipping them onto their sides.  
The Clan notices the leaving trains and a few of them turn their bullets on the locomotives. People scream and duck as the bullets shatter some of the windows. I throw an arm over Elena, both of us low in our seats, and I grimace when the glass in the window beside me explodes, showering the couple cowering beneath it in glittering shards.  
When the train in which I am ducked speedily turns the corner, a sudden deafening roar has me giving a start. Cautiously I raise my eyes just enough that I can see outside of the window behind me. It is one of the only windows left intact.  
There is distance between our train and the zombies now. But I still can see them. They are still battling. The Clan is still shooting at us and at them. I lower my head and find that Elena is now shuddering. Bullets are whizzing past. The rain has not stopped falling. The window to my right shatters. And Logan cries out.


	6. Reunited

The trains have begun to slow down. I assume we are near the shelter in place. My mind is on the scene that took place many moments ago. The two zombies that battled each other and The Clan that, from what I had witnessed, had wasted bullets shooting them.  
Inside my train, evidence of The Clan's assault is apparent in the smashed windows. The two doctors on board have already made their way over to check on the people who were struck by the breaking glass, their necks and faces bearing bleeding cuts when the shards had fallen on them whilst they were ducked down to avoid the bullets.  
Now those bleeding people are holding cloths to their faces, waiting to get to the shelter where the doctors will have the facilities available to treat their cuts properly.  
When one of the doctors checked on Logan, whose cheek bears a cut where a shard of sharp glass hit him, and who currently has Val's scarf pressed against his face, I glanced at Elena, wondering if she was going to show the doctor the file in her hand and tell them him what she was. But she had looked back at me and shook her head and I assumed that she did not think it the right place, given that the doctor was preoccupied. And so was the other one.  
With a squeal of brakes, the train stops. We are deep in the countryside. I have never been this far out of the city before but I have knowledge of this area. There is only one place that I am aware of being here and, looking out of the window, I see it up ahead. The old abandoned airfield.  
A sudden crackling sound alerts us to the tannoy coming back on and then the voice of the announcer is resounding throughout the train again.  
'Ladies and gentlemen,' the announcer says, 'we have arrived at our destination. When the train halts and the doors open, please exit in an orderly fashion. Once out on the airfield, please proceed directly toward the hangars. Thank you.'  
Less than a minute after the announcer's voice fades away that the train stops moving. The doors open and immediately people get to their feet. They start to try and push their way to the front of the crowd to be the first out of the train.  
Mom, Elena, Logan, Val and I remain in our seats until the crowd has thinned, at which point we stand and head towards the doors too. Val is supporting Logan and Elena sticks close to me as Mom leads us out onto the tarmac of the airfield.  
All the other trains have stopped too and out of them people are streaming, some of them sporting injuries like the one Logan has. Glancing around my surroundings, I spot the hangars towards the back of the airfield in front of which a number of armed cops are stood. Their police cars are parked paces away.  
The large horde of civilians starts to walk towards the hangars. I notice that Elena's shoulders have stiffened. I wonder if I should put my arm around her in order to reassure her. I am still wondering this when-  
'Cole!'  
At the sound of my name, Elena and I stop and look behind us to see who called me. But all I see is people heading for the hangars and none of them look like they want to talk to me. Frowning, I am just about to turn back around when, from in between a trio of people, there emerges a couple of familiar faces. Tilly and Marty.  
'Tilly! Marty!' I exclaim, relieved to see that the two of them are still alive.  
From their expressions, they appear relieved too. They hasten towards me and Elena and just stop short of us.  
'Boy, am I glad to see you two,' Tilly says, glancing from me to Elena. 'I see you kept her safe Cole.'  
'She didn't need me for that,' I reply, reminded of Elena's ordeal with The Clan. 'She can handle herself.'  
'I am happy that both of you are not dead,' Elena tells Tilly and Marty as people walk around us in order to keep advancing towards the hangars.  
'Er... thanks,' Marty responds, pushing his glasses back up his nose. 'Back at you by the way. Back at you both.'  
'Hey,' I say once Elena, Tilly, Marty and I have resumed heading for the hangars. 'Did you guys make it home?'  
'Yeah,' Tilly replies as Marty nods. 'No harm done at either of our places. Everyone was fine. And we're still unbitten.'  
'And Dirk? Naomi?' I continue. 'Have you heard from them? Seen them?'  
Marty and Tilly shake their heads and a grim silence descends between us. It is broken seconds later by Marty.  
'What about you Cole?' he asks. 'Was your family okay?'  
'Mom and Val weren't hurt or bitten,' I answer as someone bumps into me and carries on without looking back. 'Stan's supposed to be here, according to the text he sent. I'm not bitten either and I have yet to become a zombie so things could definitely be worse.'  
'Speaking of zombies,' Tilly says the instant I stop talking and she sounds simultaneously scared and excited in the manner she had been in the school parking lot, 'how about those two big guys that just went at each other? What was that?!'  
'The Sickness claimed two very large men,' Elena replies sadly. 'My heart weeps for them and for all the others who have contracted the virus.'  
'Yeah but who were those guys shooting at them? And at us?' Marty asks bemusedly. 'That was the scariest thing so far! People got glass in their faces on Tilly's and my train! What did they want, any idea?'  
Tilly shakes her head while I cast a sideways glance at Elena whose eyes drop to the ground. She makes no attempt to answer Marty and so, turning back to Marty, I shrug. If Elena does not want to reveal that those people were The Clan and that they were after her, well I'll go along with it for now. If she does not want to say anything yet, I'll respect that. But if the time comes where that information needs to be shared, I think I'll do what needs to be done.

*

I am inside one of the hangars. It is huge in size and there are rows and rows of cots throughout it. Many of the cots have already been occupied by citizens of Old York and more people are entering. This is only one of the hangars. I guess there was more than one shelter and we just weren't told.  
The three cots to my right have been occupied by Mom, Val and Logan, though their cots are all currently vacant. The cot next to hers, Mom has reserved for Stan who she is off searching for, following another text she got from him seconds after stepping into the hangar. The three cots to my right, Elena, Tilly and Marty have claimed. Tilly's mom and little sister, Marty's parents and Logan's guardian, his older brother Jimmy, have cots near us too.  
I am lying on my own cot and, along with Elena, who is seated on her cot, I am staring over at the medical stations at the front of the hangar. There are lines in front of each station and doctors and nurses and some medical equipment behind them. All those people who require treatment are stood in lines in front of each station, some of them making their pain obvious, others doing their best to hide it. Logan and Val joined one of the lines not long after picking his cot in order to get Logan properly checked out.  
They scanned us all upon entry into the hangar. Just like not knowing there was going to be more than one shelter, we also did not know we would be scanned. I asked the cop scanning me why he was doing so as he waved a remote type device up and down over the front and the back of my body. He said the purpose was to find out if anyone had contracted The Sickness.  
His answer had me feeling sick. Because, even though she had not contracted the virus, I was worried that he would be able to tell that Elena, who was stood behind me, had been bitten.  
However, the cop had let her past after scanning her and she had joined me in the hangar, looking as relieved as I felt.  
'Tilly.'  
Elena's voice has me turning to her, my head on my arm which is resting on my pillow. On their own cots, Tilly and Marty are both staring questioningly at Elena.  
'You did not tell us what happened to the bus,' Elena asks.  
'Oh,' Tilly responds with a sigh. 'The bus. I had it... but then it got nicked.'  
'What?!' Elena and I exclaim.  
'Yeah,' Tilly continues. 'I pulled up to my house. Went in to check on my mom and my lil' sis Kasey. I came back out when the klaxon went off and the bus was gone. I dunno who took it. Who cares anyway. Not like it had enough juice to bring it all the way out here.'  
Marty and Elena do not say anything. Before I can even think of a response, I spot Val and Logan, whose face now has a large bandage running down his right cheek, walking my way. Clutching Logan's arm, Val spots me too but then she is looking past me, behind me, and I see her eyes widen.  
Glancing over my shoulder, I glance in the same direction as Val and see two familiar faces heading towards me too. Mom, arm in arm with Stan.  
Hastily, I scramble up from my cot. Mom is leaning into Stan, her demeanor making it obvious that she is glad he is back with her. Tilly and Marty have turned their attentions to their own families. I get to my feet as Stan, Mom, Val and Logan reach me.  
It is after a relieved Val has hugged him that Stan turns to me. Dressed in his uniform, his gun holstered at his side, he stares at me for a moment before extending his hand. I take it in mine and shake it.  
'It's good to see you son,' Stan tells me.  
'It's good to see you too Dad,' I reply.  
Mom takes this opportunity to burst into tears. For once I am not embarrassed. I cannot blame her this time. The emotional, unbelievable, rollercoaster we are on that has passed through a zombie infested haunted house, is threatening to have me breaking down. On top of that, she's a mom whose family has just been reunited so I gotta let her have this one.  
Stan guides Mom over to the end of my cot, helping her onto the thin mattress, before taking a seat beside her.  
'My stepdad,' I whisper to Elena who had been watching us with a politely puzzled expression.  
She nods in understanding while Mom attempts to quieten her cries, holding tightly onto Stan, like she is afraid he'll disappear if she lets him go.  
'Can you believe this?' Stan says grimly a moment on, shaking his head. 'Zombies for crying out loud! It's like summat out of one of your comics Cole!'  
'That's what I said,' Val, sitting on her own cot with Logan, interjects in a sing-song voice.  
I feel my cheeks burn and burn further when Elena gives a gentle, tinkling laugh.  
'And who is this young lady?' Stan, his gaze upon Elena, asks a couple of seconds later.  
'That's Elena honey,' Mom replies happily. 'She's Cole's girlfriend.'  
I think my cheeks are in danger of turning permanently red as Stan grins at me and Logan whoops, fist-bumping the air. I glance apologetically at Elena who, unlike me, does not seem affected by any of this, a soft smile upon her face.  
Choosing to ignore Val and Stan's remarks, I focus on the matter at hand.  
'Do you have any information about what's going on?' I ask Stan. 'Has there been any contact with the authorities in Maine?'  
'Not yet,' Stan replies bleakly. 'We've been trying but no luck so far. This thing has escalated quicker than we could've imagined. It's gotten out of hand. It's only been hours- and not that many- since the trains departed for shelter but once they'd left Durham, more zombies surfaced. We had it all on the traffic cameras placed throughout the city. Last we saw, it appeared they were on the verge of overrunning much- if not all- of Durham's streets.'  
'Last you saw?' Val asked confusedly.  
Some of these are not your average zombies,' Stan answers. 'Or-or at least not the sort of zombies that are depicted in those supposed-to-be scary movies or in Cole's comics. Their dangerous at an above average level. Some of them have... chimp like agility. They were swinging from the poles that the cameras are attached to and were growling into the cameras. That's before they destroyed them. Every single one of them.  
'And those zombies that the cops tried to shoot down with bullets in Billboard Square mauled the cops they did not bite and then picked up the guns and started trying to shoot each other. Their aim was way off but I think they must have retained some of their intelligence from when they were alive and human. They must have had some memory of what a gun is; they just can't remember how it works. These zombies vary in looks and mannerisms. I'm guessing there must be stages of The Sickness.  
'I-I fear that if they're not stopped... they could spread out. Over the entire state of Old York. Then New York. All of America. The world. Who knows?'  
Stan speaks loudly enough that his voice can be heard in the noisy hangar but not so loudly that anyone but Mom, Elena, Logan, Val and I can hear him. It makes sense that he would want to avoid hangar-wide panic and I wonder if he has told us anything he perhaps was not meant to, given that he is a cop and there are certain things that are confidential or need to know only. However, he spoke frankly in front of Elena and Logan, neither of whom are his family so perhaps he thought it best at least some of us know what's going on.  
But what he said... intelligent zombies? Oh I reckon I'm definitely going to be having nightmares tonight.  
I look at Elena, wondering if she's going to offer any information to confirm or deny any of what Stan said. I recall what she said on the train. About the really tall zombie being in Stage Three. Which means that there are stages of the virus.  
But Elena remains quiet and I see her discreetly push her paper file further under her pillow where she had placed it moments after first sitting down on her cot.


	7. Sacrifice

It's my second night in the hangar. Dinner is a plate of rice with lentils and a bottle of water. The food is being rationed out between all the people in here so there isn't enough for seconds.  
Elena and I have just gotten our food from one of the food stations and are heading back to our cots. A doctor passes us and I am struck by a sudden thought.  
'Hey Elena,' I say, waiting until she has faced me before continuing, 'listen... we've been here for a whole day now... are you planning on showing your file to one of the doctors anytime soon? You've-you've had plenty of chances today.'  
I await her answer, hoping she did not hate my bluntness. We take several steps in silence and then she sighs.  
'I am not sure who I can trust right now,' she says. 'That is why I told your mother and sister that I was your girlfriend rather than the... you-know-what.'  
... Alright... that stung. Guess she knows how to be blunt too.  
'The Clan has already found me in this state once,' Elena continues, dropping her gaze to the food tray in her hands. 'My mind, my plan changed the instant our train was attacked. I now wonder, what if I tell one of these doctors what I am and they discover that The Clan is after me and decide to sell the information to them? What if they hand the file and me over?'  
I contemplate her words and then I nod, realising that she has a point. And this realisation is followed by another.  
'You could tell Stan,' I say. 'You can trust him. He's a stand-up guy. He'll help you.'  
She looks at me with a frown and I can tell she is contemplating what I said.  
'Yes,' she says a few moments later. 'You are right. From what I have seen, it does appear I can trust him with this. I wish there was time to be sure but the zombies are not waiting around. I will tell him at the first opportunity I see.'  
Relieved to hear her say this, I inclined my head and carry on walking.  
'Cole?'  
Elena's voice comes from behind me and I turn to see that she has not moved and that she is looking at me through her lashes. She walks forward until she is beside me and leans over to whisper something in my ear.  
'You... I trust.  
Her close proximity and her voice, her breath in my ear, sends a shudder down my spine and I gulp. Pulling away from me, she gives me a small smile and then walks on, leaving me staring after her, my breath caught in my throat.

*

I am in one of the bathrooms at the back of the hangar, washing my hands in the basin and staring at my reflection in the mirror behind it. My thoughts are on what Stan had said the previous night. About how Old York had become overrun by zombies. I wonder if we'll ever be able to go home and if Dirk and Naomi are in one of the other hangars. And then I wonder if they are still alive.  
The doors of the hangar I am in are locked and we have been told we are not allowed to go outside. The cops said they hope to have more information for us soon.  
I exit the bathroom and head through the hangar in which some people are still eating. I arrive at my cot and find Elena's empty. My brow furrowed, I glance around the hangar for her. And I find her. She is standing in the corner, talking. To Stan.  
I watch her and I watch him talk back to her. I watch her show him the file. I watch him peruse it. I see his eyes widen. I see him look up from the file and at her before looking at the file again. I see her shoulders tense, like she is questioning what she did. I am strangely proud of her.  
Stan continues to look through the file and I turn away only when I hear a gasp come from behind me.  
Turning round, I see Tilly, on her cot, staring at something over my shoulder. In the cot on her left, Marty is sound asleep, the earplugs we had all been provided with in his ears and the eye mask over his eyes.  
'Cole!' Tilly hisses at me, catching me by surprise. 'What is Elena doing?!'  
'She's showing Stan the file,' I reply, 'in the hope that he can help her- and us- out of this mess.'  
'... Well I suppose that makes sense,' Tilly sighs. 'Let's hope he can then... before it's too late.'  
I nod and turn back to Elena and Stan. He has his hand on her shoulder now and the file is in his grasp. Her eyes are upon it, as if she is regretting letting it go. I wonder what he said to convince her to let him keep it because it doesn't appear he is going to pass it back to her.  
I see him say something to her and she inclines her head before walking away from him. Her expression is unreadable. I really hope she Is not angry at me for suggesting she talk to Stan.

*

I am awakened by the sound of yelling and guns being fired, noises that are so loud that they penetrate my earplugs. Immediately I push myself into a sitting position on my cot and rip the eye mask from my eyes and the plugs from my ears. Hastily, I survey the scene. Mom is shaking Val awake and Elena, Tilly and Marty are jumping off of their cots, looking startled and pulling their earmuffs from their ears, their eye masks on their pillows.  
The other civilians in the hangar are either being forced awake by their loved ones or are jumping out of their cots. Earplugs are being wrenched from ears and eye masks are being torn off. There is panic and alarm resounding throughout the space. It is something I have become accustomed to. And I hate that.  
But my gaze goes to the large windows that run along one wall of the hangar. They are partially open and cops are crouched in front of them. Rifles in hand, they are shooting at something on the outside. I do not see Stan.  
Looking out of the window to my far right, despite the darkness of the night, I can see something moving beyond the mesh fence that surrounds part of the airfield. My heart sinks. I cannot tell exactly what the cops are shooting but I hope it is not zombies.  
Val is awake now and she is staggered. Her fear plain, she rushes over to Logan's cot and starts to shake him. I cannot believe he is still asleep and even snoring.  
'EVERYBODY, GET BACK!' one of the cops yells without turning away from his window. 'OVER TO THE BATHROOMS! BE QUIET! ZOMBIES ARE IN THE VICINITY!'  
At his words, I inwardly groan. So I thought of zombies and it turned out to be zombies outside? Why couldn't I have thought of bunny rabbits? Though bunnies being gunned down... There's something deeply disturbing about that image.  
The ensuing scene is akin to a stampede as all the citizens follow the cop's instruction and dart over to the bathrooms. I grab Elena's hand to make sure I don't lose her in the crowd.  
Arriving at the bathrooms, Elena and are still together and Mom, Val, Logan, Tilly and Marty are all in my line of sight. Mom looks as terrified as I'm feeling. There are zombies here too, at the shelters-in-place.  
As my life has progressed, I have learnt that I have a problem in that in any worrying or concerning situation, my mind always goes to the worst outcome. Here I find myself wondering if we'll ever get away from the zombies.  
In the horde around me, people are whimpering but nobody is making too loud a sound. Everyone is staring at the shooting cops. I am staring at the shapes moving beyond the fence.  
All of a sudden, they begin to climb the fence, the way the zombies had climbed the school gate. I swallow hard, feeling Elena begin to tremble beside me.  
More zombies are climbing the fence. But those of them that get struck by bullets fall back down and those that get hit and fall on the side of the fence closest to the hangar, I see twitch and stop moving. I don't know what stage these zombies are but clearly bullets had been enough to take them out. Some of them avoid the bullets and approach the windows, dragging themselves, walking with the gait I would associate with chimpanzees. The cops move backwards as the zombies get closer but do not stop shooting. A few of the zombies get hit and stop coming but the rest do not. And more are climbing the fence.  
I wish these cops had been smart enough to communicate with their colleagues who had been at Billboard Square. Then they would've known how effective fire weapons are against zombies.  
The hangar doors suddenly burst open. Men with balaclavas over their mouths and rifles in their hands are standing in the doorway. Elena gasps, the sound strangled and awful. I feel my heart stop. The Clan's here.  
At the sound of the doors opening, some of the cops turn in surprise, pointing their guns at the Clan members. The Clan points their own guns at the cops and begins shooting before the cops even have time to realise what is occurring, Several of the cops collapse to the ground, the wall behind them, the floor beneath them both splattering with blood.  
The Clan members walk further into the hangar. I feel like I'm going to throw up. The zombies enter through the windows and start to feast upon the bodies of the dead cops. There are a couple who are hurt but not yet dead. With disturbing growls and snarls, the zombies finish the job, ignoring the screams the cops give. Then the zombies dine upon those cops too. I look away, grimacing and blinking back the tears that threaten to fall from my eyes.  
The Clan is approaching those of us by the bathrooms, their rifles pointed at us. A number of women and children are sobbing. I fear we're all going to be gunned down too.  
'Elena Drake,' one of The Clan members calls through his balaclava. 'We know she is here. Hand her over and no-one else will be harmed.'  
Most of the crowd looks bewildered. But those of us who know who Elena is cast discreet glances at her. She looks petrified and I never want to see that expression on her face again.  
'ELENA DRAKE!' The Clan member yells again. 'GIVE HER TO US! Once we have her, we'll leave! And don't think any of the patrolling cops are gonna come save you! We took them out first! Give Drake to us or you will die! By gun or by zombie!'  
And it is now that I notice that the zombies, blood pouring from their mouths, are no longer making meals out of the dead cops, out of- out of Stan, but are just stood around, snarling and looking over at me and my fellows. They are not making any move toward us, which I find strange, given that they're bloodthirsty monsters. It is also now that I notice the collars around the necks of the zombies.  
'She's here! Elena Drake is here!'  
The abrupt voice that I recognise as Logan's has me turning to him, shocked. Val, Mom, Tilly and Marty look shocked too. Elena wraps her arms timidly around herself. Now furious, I round on Logan.  
'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!' I shout at him.  
'Look bro,' Logan responds. 'We're all glad you finally got a girlfriend but I'm not gonna sacrifice all these people for her. Let 'em take her. There're plenty more fish in the sea. You'll catch another one eventually. She ain't even all that anyway.  
His words make me even angrier. He is stood beside me and before I can even think about it, I lunge at him, punching him square in the jaw. Now he'll have a bruise to match the wound he got in the train.  
Caught off guard, Logan falls to the ground, clutching the side of his face. His eyes blazing fury, he scrambles to his feet and, raising his fist, he comes at me. He's stronger than I am so if he hits me, he might just knock me out. I do not back down though. Val is trying to hold Logan back.  
The sound of a bullet being fired has everyone freezing, Logan included.  
'Enough!' The Clan member who had spoken before, yells. 'Elena Drake, come out and face us! Now!'  
Discreetly, I move to my right a little so that my body is covering Elena. No-one else moves an inch or makes a sound.  
'I am giving you until the count of five before we start executing people,' The Clan guy threatens. 'One...'  
Mom and Val meet my eyes and they look scared. I subtly shake my head, silently telling them not to give up Elena. The count is continuing. Desperately I try to think of some way I can get everyone out of this predicament without any more deaths or before Logan tries to give up Elena again.  
'Two...'  
I cannot see a way out. The Clan has all their guns pointed at us.  
'One...'  
I cannot breathe. The Clan guy tuts and shakes his head.  
'How disappointing. Men, on my command, start grabbing them. Shoot them in the head. The zombies can have their corpses. Children first.'  
The Clan members advance again, their fingers on their triggers. Frightened looking mothers spread their arms wide in front of their children. I hold my breath.  
Suddenly, when the thugs are only paces away from the civilians, I see Elena move out from behind me. Realisation dawning upon me, I reach for her arm to try and stop her but she shrugs me off and pushes her way through the crowd. I lose sight of her in the horde and attempt to go after her but Mom holds me back. And when I turn to her bemusedly, this time she is the one to shake her head, her expression sad.  
I see it when Elena emerges at the front of the group of citizens and at the sight of her, The Clan guy who had talked, indicates to the other members to lower their guns. They do and The Clan guy beckons Elena forward with his gun and without a word. She slowly heads his way and I want to yell out at her to stop. A voice inside my mind tells me that Logan was right though.  
Feeling torn, I watch The Clan guy grab Elena's arm once she is beside him. He begins to march her out of the hangar and the other The Clan members stride after them.  
They leave the hangar and after they are gone, after Elena is gone, something clicks in my head. Giving Mom an apologetic look, I remove her hand from my shoulder and I set off running en route for the hangar entrance. I get only a few steps forward before the others follow my example and run for the entrance too, eager to get away from the still growling zombies.  
I am surrounded by people running for their safety and I continue to run too. Pushing my way past the others and managing to keep myself from being tripped and trampled, when I emerge outside the hangar, on the airfield, I find people rushing out of the other hangars too.  
Hastily, I glance around for a sign of Elena or The Clan. I spot her, being forced into an army type truck while the other The Clan members get into the same and a couple of other trucks. I run towards Elena. I do not know what I am going to do but I cannot let them take her. Away from me.  
By the time I push my way through all the people rushing around the airfield, the doors of the truck Elena is in have been closed and the other trucks occupied.  
The trucks begin to move. I run after them, cursing myself for not stopping Elena. I am panting hard. I hear screams emanate from my left and I quickly glance that way to see the zombies that had been in my hangar sprinting out of it.  
They seem to be heading towards the trucks, which means they are advancing on me. People expect them to attack but they do not. I make my legs go even faster in order to keep as close to the truck as I am, and in order to keep away from the zombies.  
The trucks speed up, exiting the airfield. My legs are burning and there is a stitch in my side. I do not want to but I have to stop. I have to. I stop, bending forward to catch my breath, and watch the trucks carry on. The zombies catch up to me. I shield my face, ready to fight them off. They emerge on either side of me but they keep running. I lower my arms enough to see them dart past, snarling. I catch sight of their now blinking collars. They continue pursuing the trucks.  
I am more bemused than ever. And, wincing at the pain shooting up and down my body, I glance desperately around, attempting to find some method in which I can follow the trucks. People are still milling around, panicking, behind me. It is difficult to fathom that we weren't even safe in the shelters.  
The sudden sound of a siren from over my shoulder has me giving a start and whipping around. I am startled to see a police car behind me, its lights flashing. From out of the driver's window, I see Tilly sticking out her head. With a wave of her hand, she beckons me over.  
'COLE!' she shouts. 'COME ON!'  
Stunned, I blink in disbelief and then I hasten to the car. My disbelief mounts even further when I see who is in the backseat. Marty, Naomi and Dirk.  
'H-how did-' I stammer, staring at Naomi and Dirk who are staring back at me.  
'Never mind that!' Tilly shouts, cutting me off. 'We gotta go! Gotta save the cure so she can save us!'  
Her words spur me into action. Throwing open the front passenger door, I hurl myself in. Before I can fully close the door behind me, Tilly takes off, revving the engine. I struggle to pull the door closed but manage it and then I pull on my seatbelt as Tilly exits the airfield and we chase after the running zombies and the trucks they are chasing.  
I exhale a shaky breath, each beat of my heart seeming to thud Elena's name. She gave herself up to protect us. We have to get her back. We just have to.


	8. Hot Pursuit

My heart is beating out of my chest. I am panicked but adrenaline is coursing through me. The siren of the police car I am has nit stopped blaring. A look of determination upon her ace, Tilly is still driving the vehicle. The airfield is behind us and we are still in pursuit of The Clan's trucks, inside one of which Elena is being held. The zombies that had been bounding after the trucks are still doing so.  
The unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked has me whipping round in my seat and what I find has my eyes widening. Dirk has a pistol in hand and as I watch, taken aback, he speedily rolls down his window and, once it is open halfway, he leans out of it. I open my mouth to ask him what he thinks he's doing but before I have said anything, he aims the gun out of the window, exhales a heavy breath and shoots.  
In the backseat with Dirk, Marty and Naomi flinch. I do not know where Dirk got a gun from. I do not even know how the five of us ended up together again.  
'Dirk!' I cry as he cocks the gun again. 'What are you-'  
'Good news quarterback, you took down a zombie!' Tilly tells Dirk without turning round. 'Bad news, we've been sighted.'  
At her words, I whip back round and see one of The Clan members in the last truck, leaning out of his own window, looking over the heads of the zombies at us.  
'They probably saw us coming beforehand!' Naomi shrieks. 'Only now they decided to do something about it! Oh what is wrong with us?! They're clearly thugs and we're high schoolers! We don't stand a chance! And Dirk, where did that gun come from?!'  
'Your door is open you bimbo,' Tilly yelled back. 'Go ahead and jump out if you want. The rest of us have got the cure to rescue. Those dudes seem like bad news and hey, no-one's accusing us of thinking any of this through. We're pretty much winging it-'  
Tilly's remarks are abruptly cut off by the sound of two gunshots. One of them is from Dirk's gun and has Marty ducking behind the driver. The other is from the rifle of The Clan member who had been looking at us. It is obvious that his bullet was meant for us and Dirk's for him. But in the way of both bullets are the zombies and it is the two zombies who are gunned down.  
Again the same thing happens and two more zombies go down. The Clan member retracts his weapon and moves away from the window as another bullet from Dirk takes another zombie down.  
The trucks speed up and the chasing zombies, who are still alive, do too. Seeing this, Tilly's foot slams down on the accelerator and the police car goes zooming down the road, the vehicle bouncing as it drove over the bodies of the dead zombies, as if they were speed bumps.  
Then suddenly, when the police cars is halfway down the road, the trucks stop. None of us expect this and Tilly hastily hits the brakes to keep the car from colliding with the last truck.  
Moments pass. Tilly, Marty, Dirk, Naomi and I wait with bated breath to see what happens next. A couple more moments go by. Once they have, I see the front doors of the last truck open and two The Clan members step out.  
Naomi gasps and I swallow. I hear Dirk cock his gun again as The Clan thugs begin to walk towards us. Lifting their rifles, they point them at us.  
The zombies are gathered together, growling but not moving, like they had been in the hanger after The Clan had entered. The Clan members walk past the zombies, still approaching the police car.  
'Can't we just run them down?' Naomi asks shrilly.  
'... Let's find out,' Tilly replies, glaring at The Clan thugs, her voice colder than I've ever known it.  
'What?!' Marty exclaims, startled. 'Tilly... those aren't zombies. They're actual people. You run them down and that's actual murder.'  
I have to agree with him. Killing a zombie is one thing but killing a real person... I wouldn't think that any of us in this car are capable of anything like that.  
However, Tilly does not listen. I am horrified when she starts up the car again and the next thing I know, it is speeding down the road.  
'TILLY, STOP!' Marty and I yell.  
She does not. The Clan members, having halted on the road, do not move. Instead, they start to shoot. Their bullets come zooming towards us but before they can hit the windscreen, not wanting anything like what happened when the train windows were shattered and the glass struck people, to occur, I grab the steering wheel and swerve the car to the right. The movement is so sudden that Dirk, who had been about to take a shot at one of The Clan members, drops his gun. It goes clattering to the floor and disappears under the front passenger, my, seat.  
'Burton!' Dirk barks at me as Tilly and I struggle for control of the wheel. 'You're dead!'  
Tilly and I continue to struggle. She screams at me to let go but I do not. I shout at her, asking her to promise she won't run the humans over but she does not. The car swerves left and right on the road. Naomi begins punching my shoulder and pulling on my arm, her nails digging into my shirt, as she shrieks at me to release the wheel.  
None of us see the ditch coming but I am stronger than Tilly. Using all my strength, I pull the wheel to the right, away from The Clan as the two members begin firing. The car moves out of the way of their bullets, which was my intention, but Tilly, her expression irate, like a woman possessed, continuing to fight me, hits the accelerator. The car flies forward and Marty, Naomi and Dirk cry out. But it is too late. The speed is such that the car cannot be stopped; it crashes bonnet-first into a tree on the side of the road.  
There are no airbags and none of us are wearing seatbelts. I feel the crash like a blow to the stomach and to the head, like the wind has been knocked out of me. Everyone in the car is groaning. Marty's glasses have fallen off his face, Dirk smacked his head against the back of my chair and tears have pooled in Naomi's eyes and Tilly's face has paled considerably.  
'It was an accident,' she says hoarsely, a pained look on her face, her hand over her ribs. 'I didn't mean to hit the accelerator. I-I'm sorry.'  
My vision is a little blurry but I can see that the front of the car is smoking.  
'I-is everyone okay?' I ask, though I immediately realise what a dumb question that is. 'I mean, is anyone injured?'  
Tilly, Naomi and Dirk whisper that they are not but Marty does not reply. The sound of him coughing reaches me, followed by the sound of his door opening.  
Grimacing and even though my muscles are protesting against me moving, I slowly turn my neck to see what he is doing. I see him sticking his head out the door, still coughing.  
'M-Marty,' I pant.  
But then I hear the sound of running footsteps. My head is killing me. I cannot see properly. I slowly blink and when I open my eyes again, the car is surrounded by not two, but four members of The Clan.  
Their guns are aimed at our chests and the four men are standing in front of each car door. They do say anything. They just reach into the car and attempt to pull us out of it, their hands wrapped tightly around our forearms.  
Tilly and Marty are easier to get out than Dirk and I. We fight and so The Clan members release our arms and grab our hair, wrenching at it. Pain shoots through my scalp and I fall out of the car as Dirk does the same. Neither of us makes a sound though. But a terrified looking Naomi does, when one of the men reaches in and grabs her arm. Naomi leaves the car the most willingly of the five of us.  
At gunpoint, The Clan members gather Dirk, Naomi, Tilly, Marty and I together and then-  
'Hands on your head, all of you,' one of the men tells us and when we have done what he asked, 'Walk.'  
Their rifles pointed at our backs, the men lead us towards the trucks, Naomi quietly sobbing, the rest of us silent.  
My vision has not yet cleared, my pain has not yet gone. I am not too proud to admit that I'm afraid right now. And I can guess that Naomi and Dirk on one side of me and Tilly and Marty on the other, are feeling the same way.  
When we pass by the zombies, I see their undead eyes follow us. Marty whimpers and I barely repress a shudder.  
The Clan members lead us over to the last truck. Once we have stopped in front of it, one of the men goes and opens the door at the back of the truck. The inside of the vehicle comes into view and my eyes widen in shock. Elena is there, And she is crouched next to a man whose face is bleeding and who looks like he's been beaten up pretty bad. To my horror, I recognise him right away. Stan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet :)


	9. The Barn

The trucks are moving and have been for the last hour. I am in the back of the last one with Tilly, Marty, Naomi and Dirk, the five of us having been ushered into the vehicle at gunpoint by The Clan. Stan and Elena are with us too. Elena and I are bent over Stan who is lying on the floor and is seriously hurt. His face is bruised and so is his chest, visible through his open shirt. He keeps falling in and out of consciousness. Right now he is out of it and the last time he was awake, he attempted to say something to me after I asked him how he got here but he had struggled to speak and had fallen unconscious moments later.  
Naomi is openly weeping on the floor beside the truck's doors, and a blank-faced Dirk has his arm around her. Opposite them, Marty, is sat with his eyes squeezed shut, his face crumpled. I wonder if he is trying to hold back his tears or if his state is due to the zombies that we can hear snarling as they follow behind us.  
Sat beside him is a remorseful looking Tilly who has been murmuring apologies sporadically ever since the truck set off. She believes the accident and our subsequent capture was her fault. Neither Marty, Naomi, Dirk or I have yet tried to correct or console her. I cannot help feeling that if she hadn't decided to run The Clan guys over, things may have turned out differently.  
Staring at Stan, I think of Mom and how she would react seeing him in this state. I wonder what happened to him. I hope he wakes up again so I can ask him. I hope... I hope he wakes up.  
'He was already in here when I was forced in here,' Elena says quietly, seconds on.  
She is gazing sadly at Stan and I swallow the lump in my throat. I have not spoken to her save for asking her if she was alright. Once she had said that, all things considered, she was okay, I had focused solely on Stan and thought of little else.  
Minutes pass in silence, in which the sounds of the zombies are more pronounced and unnerving. Then-  
'Where do you think they're taking us?' comes Marty's low voice.  
'... Dunno,' Dirk replies, his tone just as low. 'But this rescue mission is now a needing to be rescued situation. If only I still had that gun. I could cap us all off before those thugs get the chance. Nice going there by the way Burton! You Idiot.'  
Knowing he blames me for him dropping the gun, I do not respond. After about ten minutes of us being locked in the back of the truck, Dirk, after blaming me for the second time for losing the gun, had revealed that he had found the weapon on the body of a dead cop on the airfield when everyone had been fleeing. He had been with Naomi and, having lost sight of their families, the two of them had made their way over to an abandoned police car which, to their surprise, Tilly had been attempting to break into, a nervous Marty by her side.  
'It's all my fault,' Tilly moans yet again after a short pause and when no-one turns to face her, You all just don't get it.'  
'Get-get what?!' I demand without meeting Tilly's gaze. 'How you tried to kill two people?'  
'I was angry. I-I wasn't thinking straight. If I had been, do you really think I would have acted on a suggestion from the Barbie wannabe?'  
She has a point.  
'Look,' Tilly continues, 'those of you who have actually spoken to me as a human being since I joined Seely High- that's you Cole and you Marty- know that I came to Old York from Maine. Well... see, my family has a bit of a history with The Clan. My... my brother got mixed up with them. They turned him onto drugs and got him dealing. And my dad... he tried to get my brother away from them and they;.. they killed him. When my brother found out, he wanted out. So they killed him too. So yeah... when I saw them, all I could think about was getting some measure of revenge. I'm just sorry it's led to this.'  
Tilly's revelation stuns me. I glance around at the others and see that they appear just as shocked. Tilly herself has her head bowed and her shoulders are trembling slightly. Before I can think of anything to say to her-  
'C-Cole?'  
Stan's sudden voice has my heart giving a jolt. Hastily, I- and Elena as well- drop my eyes to him and see him looking up at me.  
'Dad?' I say concernedly as he closes his eyes and once they are open again, 'What-what happened?'  
'I-I was by the windows in the hangar,' Stan begins, his voice hoarse, 'couldn't sleep. I was studying El-Elena's file. I saw the trucks coming. I didn't know who was in them but I wasn't expecting anybody to show up at the airfield. I unlocked the hangar and went outside to see who they are. I got to the hangar entrance and that's when I saw the zombies. I... I tried to turn back, to warn people but... a man jumped out of one of the trucks and grabbed me. Probably so I couldn't warn anyone. They- they saw the gun in my holster and assumed I was a cop. They got really angry, forced me into a truck, beat me up and then locked me in. I heard the shooting and the screaming. Cole, please tell me your mom and Val weren't shot by those men.'  
'Uh, n-no,' I reply, bewildered by what he just told me, 'they weren't shot.'  
I see the relief transpire upon his face, visible in spite of the bruises. As he closes his eyes once more, I cast a glance at Elena who is staring at Stan with concern. She is the reason Mom, Val or anyone else was not shot in the hangar. Because she had sacrificed herself to save everyone else. I have to remember to thank her.  
When Stan's eyes open for the third time, before I can think of anything to say, Elena surprises me by addressing him.  
'Mr Stan,' she says and when Stan turns his gaze upon her, 'I hope you will not mind my asking but... please could you tell me, where is my file?'  
Oh yeah, her file. The mention of it has me giving Stan a questioning look and I anticipate his answer.  
'... I'm sorry,' Stan whispers after a moment, his eyes on Elena. 'They took it.'  
His response startles me. I expect Elena to be startled too. Or to be upset. Maybe even angry. If she is any of these things however, it is impossible to tell from her features.  
'... Yes,' she sighs, sounding weary. 'I expected as much. If there was anything The Clan did not learn from that file the first time they took it, this time they will learn everything.'  
Her words have my mind going back to when we had been in Mom and Stan's house and she told me about her abduction. I do not know if Stan heard her. He is looking up at the roof of the truck and his features are void of expression.  
Naomi has stopped crying and is sat with her head on Dirk's shoulder. The only sounds I can hear is that of our breathing, the zombies and the wheels of the truck below us.  
Sitting back on my haunches, I exhale a breath, my heart heavy. Despite everything that's happened over the past couple of days,, I've never felt more helpless, more hopeless, than I do now. We're at the mercy of The Clan. I do not know how we're gonna get out of this one.

*

It is another few hours before the truck starts to slow down. I frown, wondering if we are near wherever we are being taken. Stan has been unconscious for the past hour. Tilly, Marty, Naomi and Dirk have not moved from where they have been sat since we were first forced into the truck. Elena and I are sat side by side against the truck's side. For the past ten minutes she has been resting her head on my shoulder and staring at the opposite side of the truck. I considered asking her what she's thinking about but I didn't. I'm not sure I want to know. And I don't know if she'd tell me. But I can guess it's something to do with this whole zombie/The Clan ordeal. Unsurprisingly, it's on my mind too.  
Without warning, Elena lifts her head from my shoulder.  
'Why am we slowing down?' she asks bemusedly. 'Where must we be?'  
Not having an answer, Tilly, Naomi, Dirk and I say nothing, the three of them frowning too.  
'Er,' Marty is the one to respond and when the rest of us, minus Stan, have turned to him, 'I've been monitoring how long we've been travelling in accordance with the time on my watch. It took around the same time for us to get to the airfield and since we've been going in the opposite direction-'  
'Out with it nerd!' Dirk snaps, making me want to punch him. 'Do you know where we are or not?'  
'I-I,' Marty, pushing his glasses back up his nose, stammers, clearly unsettled by Dirk's harsh tone, 'I think... I think we're back in Durham.'  
My eyes grow wide and so do Dirk's. Naomi's hands fly to her mouth and Elena looks stunned. Marty reckons we're back home? Home which is now, according to what Stan said, pretty much infested with zombies?  
Before anyone can say anything however, the truck squeals to a stop.  
My breath catches in my throat. A sudden groan alerts me to Stan being conscious again, though his eyes remain closed. Seconds pass, everyone bar Stan tense. Several more seconds go by and then I hear voices outside the truck and the snarling zombies.  
The next thing I know, the doors at the back of the truck are being wrenched open. Once they are open, the sky, pink and purple, meaning it's almost sunrise, comes into view. And so do four of The Clan members. Naomi yells out as they reach in and seize her arm, like they had done in the police car.  
Pulling her out of the truck, they start to yell at the rest of us, to stand up, to get out of the truck. Marty, Dirk, Tilly and Elena do as they say but I automatically bend down to help Stan. I am glad when The Clan do not try and stop me.  
Putting Stan's arm around my shoulder, I support his weight and help him out of the truck where the two of us join my schoolmates and Elena.  
I look around as The Clan slams the truck doors shut. The other trucks have stopped too and the zombies that had followed us are standing around again. They are so close to us, to human flesh so I wonder why they do not attack. The collars around their necks are still blinking, like they had been on the airfield. Are The Clan controlling them somehow? Is that even possible?  
It appears that we are on some sort of a farm, the trucks having driven down a dirt driveway as evidenced by the fresh tire marks leading down it. I don't recognize the place but it could well be Durham. It's not like I've seen all of the city.  
There are a couple of what look to be barns ahead of us and also a farmhouse and stables. There is a meadow and a water well and a coop that I can see chickens sleeping in.  
The Clan moves forward, one of them shouting at us to follow, a couple more armed members bringing up the rear. We are led over to one of the barns, which one of the members opens up, revealing a large space with closed stalls that also have closed roofs on top of them. There is an open area at the back and it is there where The Clan takes us. It is full of hay and it is onto this hay that Dirk falls when one of The Clan members suddenly hits him in the back with the butt of his gun.  
Dirk groans and grimaces in pain and now I want to punch the thug that hit him. That thug lets out a cruel laugh as one of his fellows shouts at the rest of us to get down onto the hay. As the others do so, I lower Stan onto the straw first and then lower myself beside him.  
I do not know what the plan is here but I doubt it'd be difficult to escape a wooden barn the first chance we get.  
Moments later, The Clan turns and leaves, striding down the barn and out the door, which I see them close and assume they'll lock. Once they have gone, as everyone else stares anxiously around the barn, Dirk wastes no time in getting to his feet and rounding on Elena.  
'Oi!' he barks at her, catching everyone off guard and to my hock, he goes and grabs her by the arm and roughly pulls her up from the hay.  
His hold on her is tight and she squirms in discomfort. Furious, I jump up and push him away from her, shoving hard at his chest.  
'Back off!' I yell, stepping between him and Elena.  
Glowering, he moves towards her again and I feel her grab my shirt from behind. Again I push him back when he gets too close.  
'What's your problem?!' I shout at him, making him scoff.  
'What, are you stupid?!' he spits at me. 'Look around! Zombies! That's my problem! And her, the cure. I get that, that's why I came along on this suicide mission but there's something she's not telling us! It's her those guys want, why?! It's cos of her we were stuck in that truck for hours! It's cos of her my back hurts! It's cos of her that I had to hold it even though I've been dying to go to the toilet for the past hour!'  
His remark would've made me laugh if I wasn't so angry.  
'Well go use one of the stalls!' I snap at him. 'We'll look away, go!'  
Glaring at me, Dirk does what I say. Stalking down the barn, he heads into one of the stables. I can't imagine whatever animal uses that stall next is going to be too happy.  
Turning to Elena, I take her hands and help her to the straw, beside Stan who is breathing deeply, clearly still in pain.  
'Needing the bathroom so badly does make one cranky, Elena says quietly. 'I am not upset with Dirk.'  
'He does have a point though Elena,' Tilly, her legs pulled up to her chest, says in a low voice. 'You told us you were abducted when we first met you but we didn't press you for details. We came after you cos, according to you, you're our way out of this mess. We believed you cos of your file and even in the hangar, Marty or I didn't ask for more info. But look at where we are, look where we ended up, trying to save you. You gotta be upfront with us now. What do those guys want with you?'  
I know what Tilly is asking but I also remember what Elena said about not knowing who to trust. I don't know if she is going to respond. And she doesn't right away, her eyes on her lap. It is only after Dirk has exited the stall and gone and washed his hands in a trough beside the barn doors, that Elena opens her mouth and starts to speak.  
'Those... those men,' she begins, 'are called... The Clan.'  
And as Tilly, Marty, Naomi, Stan and I listen and Dirk heads to the barn doors and begins examining them, Elena tells the story of her abduction, a story I find hard to listen to now that I know it. She mentions getting bitten, not turning into a zombie, getting tested, Doctor Patel, the file, her father, The Clan, being taken, Cliff and The Clan's plan, escaping, coming across five high school teenagers in a bright yellow and black school bus...  
'See,' Elena finishes by saying, 'I am not the only person with the rare blood type that is the cure but whether the others have the antibodies I have in their blood is the question. The Clan either already knew which blood type is needed from when they first had my file, or if they didn't, they will once they have read the file now that they have it. I do not blame you Mr Stan. But then, if they know there are possibly others, why do they want me so desperately? I have asked myself this question and I believe the reason is, not only because I am a proven cure, but because it is personal. They want revenge from me for escaping them. And they are worried that if they do not silence me, I will expose their plan. You all are just collateral damage I am afraid. I am glad that you came for me... but I wish you hadn't.'  
'We weren't going to leave you,' I say after a moment's silence, the others looking taken aback by Elena's revelation.  
Elena gives me a small smile which I return.  
'I would have, if I'd have known there were potentially other 'cures' out there,' Naomi mutters.  
Everyone ignores her.  
'... Er, Elena?' Marty says after a brief pause and when she has faced him, 'I'm sorry you had to go through that.'  
'Thank you,' Elena replies before breathing a sigh. 'I do hope we will wake from this nightmare soon-'  
'Hey guys,' Dirk's sudden voice interrupts from the other end of the barn, 'you're gonna wanna see this.'  
Marty, Naomi, Tilly, Elena, Stan and I turn to look at him, our brows furrowed. Dirk is stood pressed against the door and I wonder what he's doin and what he think we'll want to see. Naomi, Marty, Tilly and I begin to move towards Dirk while Elena stays with Stan.  
When we near Dirk, I see that he is staring out of a gap in the doors big enough to peep out of. There are more gaps so Marty, Naomi, Tilly and I go and stare out of some of them too, putting our eyes to them so we can stare outside.  
And what I see is more trucks driving down the driveway, the one at the back the largest of them all. A group of The Clan members are waiting, arms crossed over their chests, rifles on their backs, in the farmyard, staring at the approaching vehicles. The collar wearing zombies are still stood where they had been minutes ago.  
When the trucks pull up in the farmyard, The Clan members driving them get out and greet their fellows in the farmyard. Another man also exits one of the trucks. A brown-skinned man in a white doctor's coat.  
I watch as two of The Clan members go and open the door of the largest truck. When it's open and I see what's inside, my blood runs cold. A zombie. A really big zombie. Like one of the ones that was in the countryside when we were on the way to the shelters in place.  
It is hunched over In the back of the truck. However, once the door is no longer closed, it waits only a moment before it starts to edge its way out of the truck.  
When it is fully outside, it stretches itself out and my shocked gaze follows it as it stretches towards the sky. It's very tall. And that's when I spot the blinking collar around its neck.  
Naomi gasps and together, she, Marty, Dirk, Tilly and I move away from the doors.  
'Oh this is so not good,' Naomi whines.  
Usually I would have rolled my eyes or sarcastically thanked her for stating the obvious. But it is a mark of the seriousness of the situation that I do not.  
'What do they want with a zombie that big?' Marty asked nervously. 'Don't they know it could turn on them and rip them into pieces?'  
'Unless it won't,' I reply contemplatively. 'Those collars-'  
'You know what I don't get?' Tilly cuts across me not unkindly. 'How did they track Elena to our hangar? She could've been in any of them. How did they know she was in ours? They found her and that's why we're here. Did they even check the other hangars?'  
I do not know so I cannot answer but Tilly poses a valid question. From behind me, there comes a malicious laugh.  
I spin round. And I freeze in horror and disbelief at what I see. Stan is on his feet and he no longer looks injured. He is grinning like a mad man. He has Elena by the hair, a knife to her throat.  
'They didn't have to search the other hangars,' he shouts down the barn before I can speak, before I can move, before I can think. 'Because I told them where the cure was.'


	10. The Barn Part 2

I stare at Stan as if seeing him for the first time. I cannot believe this. He still has a knife to Elena's throat and she looks as shocked as I feel. She also looks terrified. Stan is still grinning, his eyes on me. Tilly, Marty, Naomi and Dirk are all frozen in place, stunned. My mind, my heart are both racing. The man standing on the opposite side of the barn to me is not the stepfather I know and love. I take a step towards him and my legs feel like lead.  
'St-Stan?' I whisper. 'W-what are you doing?'  
To my question, he gives a nasty laugh that cuts through me like a dagger.  
'What The Clan are paying me to do,' he snarls in a voice I've never heard him use before. 'To take out the girl known as the cure.'  
Elena struggles a little in Stan's hold but not enough that the knife cuts her. Stan wrenches her hair back harshly and she cries out. My hands curl into fists at my side.  
'Let her go,' I say slowly, hardly believing who I am saying these words to.  
'Oh I will,' Stan replies, 'after I've slit her throat. And I hope this doesn't colour things between us when we return home son-'  
'Don't call me that now,' I interrupt, still approaching Stan and Elena. 'If you hurt her, you can't call me that ever again. Let her go Stan and we'll forget this happened-'  
'I can't do that Cole,' Stan cuts across me and his tone is dark. 'They're replacing me as Chief at the station. Getting in someone else and demoting me. Just because I've dropped the ball on a couple of cases. I earned that status! After all I've done for the city of Durham, this is how they're repaying me. Well when The Clan found me and told me of their plan, let's just say I didn't have to think more than twice.'  
'Their plan?' I say, thinking that if I can keep him talking, perhaps I can get him to drop the knife.  
'... Their plan to take over Old York,' Stan tells me after a moment's pause, like he wanted to create a dramatic moment of tension, like this is a movie and not real life, '... and then... the world.'  
I hear Naomi gasp behind me and I swallow hard. The Clan want to take over the world? And Stan- my stepdad Stan- is in on it.  
Thoughts, emotions run through my mind. I want to yell at Stan. Want to curse at him. Want to punch him. I want to shake this craziness out of him and make him realise what he's doing. What he's done.  
The space between me and Stan and Elena is getting shorter as I get closer to them. I can see that Stan's eyes are blazing and he has begun to breathe heavily in Elena's ear, making her cringe. I cannot stand the thought of anything happening to her which is mad considering we haven't known each other long at all. But we've been through more in days than perhaps people go through in a lifetime. Zombies remember?  
I wonder why Stan has not harmed Elena yet. He has the opportunity. I'm glad he hasn't hurt her. But what is he waiting for? Despite all he said, could it be that he's reluctant? Either way, this is gonna break Mom's heart.  
Elena is staring right at me and her eyes are wide. Is she scared? She looks it. I don't blame her.  
'Stan...' I begin gently, attempting to reason with him, 'let her go... please dad.'  
I put emphasis on the word 'dad' and, to my relief, it appears to have effect. Stan's eyes soften somewhat, no longer looking angry. This man has raised me for the age of eight so for the past few years he has been my strongest male role model. And he knows it. That's why this behavior from him has hit me like a blow to my stomach.  
'Cole...' Stan says unexpectedly, his voice soft, 'I can't... i-it's too late to go back now. What I've done. I- your mother... she'll never forgive me if she finds out.'  
'We'll work it out,' I say, not knowing if my words are true. 'Just... put the knife down.'  
I wonder if I am getting through to him as a conflicted expression appears on his face. My breath bated, I continue to slowly move forward. Stan's hand has begun to shake, shaking the knife which is at Elena's throat, making it likely that he'll accidentally cut her. But he doesn't. Instead I watch his eyes close and then the knife is being withdrawn from Elena's neck. Surprised, I am simultaneously relieved but I do not stop walking. The knife falls from Stan's hand and lands in the hay on which he and Elena stand. And from over my shoulder, I hear the barn door be thrown open with a thud and someone- Naomi perhaps?- gasps once again, reminding me that she is also present in the barn. I had almost forgotten about her and Dirk, Tilly and Marty and I didn't even hear the door be unlocked. My sole focus has been on Stan and Elena.  
Aware that the knife is sill within Stan's reach and not trusting that he wouldn't have a relapse in judgment, I do not turn to see who opened the door. I hear the growling of the zombies out in the farmyard as Stan's and Elena's eyes widen. They are looking behind me. And then someone speaks.  
'Well well well, Stan the man,' a husky male voice says from over my shoulder. 'Nice to see you lived up to your side of the deal. I said to the others, I said you could be trusted. That underneath that copper uniform, you were still the same dirtbag that used to roll with The Clan back in The Big Apple.'  
Whoever is speaking is coming my way. I hear the sound of feet approaching me and also the sound of boot spurs. My mind jolts back to when Elena had been telling me her story. The Clan leader who wore boots with spurs... Cliff.  
I swallow hard, disbelief creasing my brow. However, it is not only the fact that we may have just been joined by Cliff that has startled me. But what was just said. Stan used to be associated with The Clan? I... I knew he was from New York but the only things Stan has told me about his time there was that it was where he grew up and became a copper.  
I meet his gaze and he has the decency to look embarrassed. Even ashamed maybe? I've never seen him look like that. I know I must look disappointed because I feel it and maybe San knows that because he does not hesitate in looking away from me, like he can't maintain eye contact. Instead he stares past me and opens his mouth.  
'Cliff-' he begins in a subdued voice that carries clearly in the barn.  
But this is all he manages to say as a sudden scream pierces the air, followed immediately by curses from more than one voice. Fighting my instinct to turn around and see what happened, I keep my eyes on Elena, hearing the sound of yelling and people struggling behind me. But the sound of boot spurs can no longer be heard.  
There is commotion and in the commotion, I see Stan discreetly release Elena's hair, his gaze meeting mine again, as if he is assuring me that he means her no harm. His hand goes to her shoulder, perhaps to keep Cliff from suspecting anything or maybe to lull Elena- and me- into a false sense of security.  
With a small nod of gladness but not of trust- not yet- I whip round. And I find men in balaclavas- The Clan members- physically dragging Naomi, Marty, Tilly and Dirk- all of whom are fighting to get free- out of the barn, their rifles on their backs, close should they need them. Dirk- being the strongest of us teens- is fighting the most of all but The Clan member who has him in a chokehold is the biggest of his surrounding fellows.  
And Cliff- his balaclava around his neck, his blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, his beard scruffy- is stood between me and my classmates. His rifle is in hand and he is looking straight at me.  
'Out you go,' he says before jerking his head to his right to indicate that I should leave the barn. 'Stan, bring the girl.'  
My eyes travel to Cliff's gun. One shot and it could be all over for me. I sense that this is not the place to try anything. I do as Cliff asked and exit the barn. When I pass him, Cliff follows behind me, sticking the tip of his gun into my back.  
As I step out into the farmyard where all the collar wearing zombies- even the big one- are still stood and where more rile wielding The Clan members are gathered, I see Naomi, Dirk, Tilly and Marty be forced to their knees in a row. Removing his rifle from my back, Cliff tells me unkindly to join them and I do so, lowering myself at the end of the row, beside Dirk whose hair is disheveled and who is breathing hard, clearly furious. I do not blame him. Naomi's eyes are on the zombies and she is whimpering. Dirk's fists are clenched at his sides. I wonder if the two things are related, even though they're no longer together.  
Shouldering his rifle, Cliff moves away from me- the sound of his boot spurs grating- and as he does so, Stan brings Elena over and starts to lower her by the arm to the ground beside me.  
'No,' Cliff unexpectedly says sharply, addressing Stan who freezes, Elena halfway to the ground. 'Bring her here.'  
Stan hesitates and I barely manage to stop myself from shouting out. Or from reaching out and grabbing Elena.  
Plainly reluctant, Stan raises Elena back to her feet and leads her towards Cliff. Though she makes no sound or attempts to resist, her back tautens. I grit my teeth, glaring at Cliff who grins as he watches Elena approach.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tilly discreetly reach over and take Naomi's hand. It is a mark of the seriousness of the situation that Tilly is offering Naomi any comfort at all, considering how much Naomi has tormented her throughout high school.  
My attention though is on Elena who is now paces away from Cliff. Stan leads her to the leader of The Clan who, once she is within touching distance, roughly seizes her by the arm. I bite down on the inside of my cheek, hard enough to draw blood. And blood is drawn. I feel the taste of it in my mouth but I resist the urge to spit it out, not wanting these monsters to know that they've affected me. I swallow the blood, hating the taste of it as Cliff gives a menacing, evil laugh.  
'There's no escape this time cure,' he sneers at Elena. 'You're gonna die here. And then so are the others who could possibly be a cure to this wonderful condition-'  
'Wonderful?!' Elena spits bravely. 'You're insane! This is awful! And a cure will be found! If it's not me, it'll be someone else! But it will be someone! So go ahead, shoot me!'  
I don't know if she's courageous or foolish. Or a mixture of both. I'm afraid her words will anger Cliff or worse, that he'll take heed of them and actually shoot her.  
Cliff does not look angry. No, he looks almost amused. He laughs again. And he tightens his hold on Elena. But she does not look fazed, glowering at him.  
'I'm not gonna shoot you little girl,' he tells her in a horribly sweet voice. 'Your demise will be much much worse than that. See a bullet is kinder than being ripped apart, limb from limb, by my zombies. And that's what's going to happen to you and your little barn friends over there. Either that or they'll turn you. So you're dead either way.'  
Though he does not look at us, I know that he referred to me and my classmates when he said 'barn friends'. Naomi, who only stopped whimpering moments ago, whimpers again. A thought crosses my mind. What did Cliff mean, his zombies?  
'Just think about it,' Cliff says a moment on, breaking me from my thoughts. 'Once we have left and I turn the collars of the zombies I will leave behind off, do you not think they will resort to their natural instinct and destroy you kids before you can get away?'  
So they are being controlled.  
'And just in case you do manage to evade them,' Cliff goes on, still addressing Elena, 'some of my men will be watching from a safe distance with their guns cocked... So either way this is goodbye.'  
And with this, Cliff releases Elena, shoving her forward so roughly that she loses her balance and falls into the dirt. I wince as Cliff turns his back on her and then begins to walk away from her before giving his men the order to move out. I watch as most of The Clan members put away their rifles and start to approach the trucks while the rest keep watch over us teens. My eyes go to the snarling zombies who have been gazing hungrily a us all this time before staring up at the big zombie who towers over me. He doesn't even have to rip me apart; he can just crush me under his foot.  
'Wait!'  
Elena's abrupt voice stuns me. My heart is hammering and I am not ashamed to admit that I'm afraid as Cliff stops short and Elena pulls herself unsteadily to her feet, Stan hovering uncertainly between her and us.  
'You need me,' Elena tells Cliff whose back is to her. 'Take me and let the others go. You need me to get what you want from the President-'  
'Actually,' Cliff cuts across her without bothering to turn and face her, 'I don't. We've already contacted the President and she said she will never deal with terrorists. She thinks that since there are others with the rare blood out there, vaccines can still be engineered. But see, she doesn't know about the antibodies. We decided to keep that bit from her until our demands are met. Now she'll never know and she'll watch her country and the world perish... until my zombies take her out.'  
And with this, Cliff resumes walking towards one of the trucks. I stare in disbelief at Elena's back. Was she really willing to sacrifice herself again?  
Doors slam as The Clan members get into the trucks. I see Cliff reach one of the vehicles and then stop in front of it. I watch him reach into his pocket and pull out a what looks like a remote control.  
'Hey Stan!' Cliff yells over his shoulder, catching Stan by surprise. 'Go back to your family. Your work is done here. We'll send you the cash-'  
'No wait!' Stan blurts out in response with what may be remorse. 'Cliff, stop this, all of it. Please. This-this was a mistake. I want out-'  
What happens next happens in a matter of moments but could have lasted a lot longer. It is as if what occurs take place in slow motion. I feel relief at Stan's words but that relief quickly turns to fear when Cliff turns round, a pistol- not his rifle, a pistol that I wasn't even aware he had on him or that I didn't see him take out- in his hand. His gun is pointed at Stan who had begun to approach Cliff. His eyes growing wide, Stan stops in his tracks.  
'I was worried this would happen,' Cliff says, sounding disappointed. 'I was worried being a copper had made you soft. Upholding the law and all that. Guess you've forgotten how many times you broke the law when you were one of us.'  
'That was a long time ago,' Stan responds, holding Cliff's gaze. 'I've changed. You have to too. Stop this Cliff. Put the gun away.'  
'You know too much Stan. You've just proven I can't trust that the new you won't go and confess everything we did together. That knowledge could get us put away for good. I was hoping you were still my brother. But don't worry. I still got you. I'll let you out. For good.'  
My mind is racing. This is like something out of an old western movie. I blink and when I open my eyes, Stan is pulling a pistol out of the back pocket of his jeans. He points it at Cliff who is still pointing his own gun at Stan. A stand-off. Now this is really like something from a western.  
'NO!' Cliff yells when The Clan members who are not in the trucks turn their rifles at Stan. 'This is between me and my old blood brother.'  
It looks like whatever happens next is not going to be good. Not hat any of what's occurred so far has been good. As long as Stan can get the shot in first and duck the bullet if one comes his way.  
In unison, Stan and Cliff cock their guns, feet of space between them. They prepare to shoot. I wince... but no-one shoots. Before either of the two men can release their bullets, the outer trees of the woods across the road from the entrance to the farm start to shake.  
Now what? I do not know how much more I can take. Everyone's- even The Clan members in the trucks- everyone's attention goes to the shaking trees. Together, Marty, Naomi, Tilly, Dirk and I stand from the dirt, the two girls helping each other up. Only the zombies remain looking at us and don't turn to the trees due to the fact that they're being controlled and not free to do what they wish.  
Second pass, seconds in which the trees keep shaking. And then suddenly those trees are pushed apart and from in between them emerges... the bigger zombie from earlier.  
I cannot believe it. And neither it seems can anyone else. With a roar, the zombie turns its stare upon the farm. It looks around at us all, at the humans and the other zombies. Then its eyes land upon the other big zombie- who is only just shorter than him- and it gives another an even louder roar. And then it starts to run toward the farm with the agility of a chimpanzee.  
The zombie runs across the road and into the farm. And as it runs down the driveway, The Clan members dive out from the trucks and they and their fellows open fire on the approaching zombie. Apparently they're overlooking the fact that last time bullets had not effect on either of the big zombies. Fire had seemed to work for the cops back in Billboard Square but I'm not going to be the one to tell The Clan this information.  
Stan, Elena, Marty, Tilly, Dirk, Naomi and I all back up towards the barn. Even Cliff has begun shooting the running zombie. But just like they did before, the bullets are ricocheting off of it. I'm rooting for the zombie, as hideous as it is.  
When it enters the farm, the zombie begins to topple the trucks on either side of him it ease that doesn't seem natural. It's like it does it just for the sake of it, just because it can. It doesn't even appear to be affected by the bullets, like they're not even there.  
As I, Elena, Stan and my classmates back into the barn, Cliff backs up from the zombie but keeps shooting as it advances. It's gaze has not left the other big zombie since it first saw it. They had quite the epic battle the last time, in the countryside. The running zombie seems to be heading the other big zombie's way and the zombie with the collar on has noticed this and has begun to growl at the bigger of the two. I can only assume what would happen between the two zombies if one of them wasn't being controlled.  
The taller zombie is now steps away from a still shooting Cliff. In spite of the fear I feel right now, I wish the zombie would throw him aside like he had with the trucks. But with another roar, it runs past him, ignoring Cliff's bullets. In spite of my fear, I inwardly groan.  
The shots continue, the sound of them reverberating in my ears and making Naomi, Tilly, Elena and Marty cover their ears while grimacing. The running zombie is making a beeline for the other big zombie who lets out a deafening roar. The two are paces apart...  
'Get further into the barn everyone, now!'  
Stan's sudden yell catches me off guard. Tearing my gaze away from the big zombies, I leap into action. Dirk, Marty, Tilly, Naomi, Elena and I back away from the barn's entrance and further into it, and then Stan goes and quickly pushes the door shut. The sound of bullets, snarling and more roars can be heard from outside.  
'A closed door is only gonna draw attention,' Stan, whirling round from the door, says hastily. 'And it's unlocked. We're pretty much screwed but I have to make up for what I've done...'  
I can tell that his mind is working as he stares around the barn, clearly looking for an escape. I look around too. There is a hayloft above me, accessed by a ladder. Bundles of hay are stacked neatly inside it and leading off of it is a thick wooden rafter that run along the length of the barn to the back of it where there is what appears to be a hatch in the ceiling. I assume that it leads onto the roof of the barn.  
'Go! Up the ladder!' San tells us, apparently having been looking where I was. 'Go!'  
We do not hesitate in following his instruction. Dirk is the first one up the ladder and then, once in the hayloft, he stretches out a hand to help Naomi up beside him after she has almost reached the top of the ladder. He helps up Tilly and even Elena but when he extends a hand to help Marty, Marty gives him a hard, cold and unnecessary-given-our-situation look that has Dirk scoffing and pulling his hand back. Marty's issues with Dirk run deep. Let's just say that towel-whipping him in the lockerroom is not the worst thing Dirk has done to Marty.  
I am the next one up the ladder and Stan is right behind me.  
'Across the rafter! Go!' Stan shouts once I am in the hayloft.  
'What?!' Naomi shouts incredulously, glancing from Stan to the rafter. 'You can't be serious. I could break my neck! I could chip a nail!'  
'Not the time your bimbo-ness,' Tilly interrupts, though she says 'bimbo-ness' with a lot less hatred than she usually does.  
'Just do it,' Dirk tells Naomi gently. 'I'll be right behind you.'  
Their eyes meet and I see a look of understanding, of what I think may be trust, pass between them. The next thing I know, Marty is shoving past Dirk and approaching the rafter. If he is reluctant, he does not voice it. Staring at the rafter, I can see why anyone would be reluctant. I don't have confidence in this part of the plan myself. I do not know if the rafter can even support all of our weights. But what if the alternative? The sound of bullets and roars have yet to stop. So death by falling from the rafter or it collapsing with us on it or death by being torn apart by zombies or being turned into one of them. Cliff's words echo in my ears, 'Either way you're dead.'  
Once Stan has stepped into the hayloft, he, Marty, Elena, Naomi, Dirk, Tilly and I step over to the edge of the hayloft and look down at the floor of the barn, some couple of feet or so, below us. Marty audibly gulps and Naomi whimpers again.  
'Cole, you go first,' Stan tells me.  
Knowing that my options are limited, I give a hesitant nod. Stepping over to the rafter, my knees shaking, I consider the best way forward. Straddling the rafter seems to be the safest way. So that it what I do. After I am on It, bit by bit I move along it. I am a quarter of the way along when Stan tells me to pick up the pace and, once I have slightly done so (since I dare not move too fast), I hear him tell Elena to go next.  
Not being a fan of heights, I do not dare to look down and I hope the rafter holds all the weight that is placed upon it. It takes me a few moments more to reach the end of the rafter and by this time Marty, Dirk, Naomi and Tilly have joined me and Elena on the rafter. Stan is just getting on it and so far the rafter has held up. Now beneath the hatch, even before Stan can call out and tell me to, I reach up and touch it. And I began pushing at it, trying to get It open. But it is stuck. I try again, this time with more might. But it does not budge.  
'I should've gone first!' comes Dirk's exasperated voice.  
I cannot argue. He is stronger, musclier, than me. He probably could've gotten the hatch open. Feeling uncomfortable in the knowledge that the others are watching me, willing me to hurry up, I prepare to try again. But I have just raised my arm and touched the hatch when, from below me, several of the stall doors simultaneously open. I hear them open. I look down below. I almost fall from the rafter. My blood runs cold.  
Due to the fact that the stalls have roofs on them and their doors were closed, I did not realise they were occupied... Occupied by zombies. Regular sized zombies but zombies nonetheless.  
My breath catching in my throat, I hastily grip the sides of the rafter as the zombies exit the stalls, two of them emerging from each one. There are around ten of them and they are snarling, each of their breaths rattling, guttural, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I hear someone gasp quietly behind me but do not know who it is. The zombies have yet to look up and spot us.  
Quickly, I turn my attention back to the hatch and raise my hand again. With quiet but urgent hits to the hatch, I attempt to get it open. My mind is racing and my heart is racing faster.  
'Hurry up!' I hear Dirk whisper.  
In another situation, I would have told him to shut up. But I don't. I am aware that the zombies have started to swarm around the floor of the barn and from outside, the sounds of bullets and growling can still be heard.  
Deciding to take the risk, I let go of the rafter with my other hand and squeeze my thighs on either side of it to try and keep myself balanced and secure. Then I use both hands, as opposed to the one I had been using, and I push at the hatch again.  
I feel it move. I do the same thing. It moves again. One more hit. It gives way. The hatch moves, a piece of square wood coming loose in my grasp. Without delay, I hurl it aside, hearing it fall somewhere on the roof above me. But I guess it was too much to hope that the sudden sunlight that streams into the barn and the noise that the hatch made when it fell aside did not attract the attention of the zombies.  
The growls that leave the mouths of the zombies are horrifying. They are looking up at us and then they are moving forward, towards the hayloft with deliberate, menacing steps, almost like they are hunters stalking their prey. Which they kind of are.  
'Go Cole, go!' I hear several voices scream at me.  
I do not need telling twice. Reaching up, I grab onto the sides of the now open hatch and, straining my arms, I use them to pull myself up onto the roof. My upper body strength is average at best but it does the job.  
Once I am up on the uneven roof (which is higher at the front and lower at the back), crouching down low so that Cliff and the rest of The Clan cannot see me from the farmyard, I assume the role Dirk had taken earlier and lean back into the barn to help Elena up. I see the zombies near the walls. I help Naomi up and then Marty. And that's when the zombies pick up speed. They don't even use the ladder. They just leap up onto the hayloft with that chimp like agility they possess. Naomi lets out a yell and then I hear bullets being fired in the barn. I know it's Stan and as I hurriedly help Tilly up onto the roof, I see zombies fall as the bullets take them out. The thought that these are not bullet proof zombies goes through my mind but I do not focus on that. Dirk is up next and he pulls himself onto the roof unaided by me but aided by the athleticism playing sports and working out has given him.  
Stan, who has turned on the rafter to face the hayloft, is still shooting and a couple more zombies fall. However, some are able to evade the bullets and they continue on, towards the hatch.  
'Stan!' I call urgently, knowing that my voice will not be heard in the chaos that is still occurring at the front of the barn, 'Stan, come on!'  
He does not reply. I can see him on the rafter, still shooting. With each bullet fired, he is using his legs to inch backward towards the opening. Leaning forward into the hatch, I extend my arm to reach for him.  
'Stan!' I call again. 'Sta-'  
I break off. Before I can finish saying Stan's name, something happens. The stall doors that had remained closed when the others had opened, open. And two zombies stumble out of each of them. But these are not like the other zombies. These are worse. I feel my stomach turn at the sight of them. Parts of their skin are missing and their eyes look bloodshot. A couple have chunks missing from their cheeks, a couple more from their noses, their ears. It is as if someone has bitten out parts of their flesh. They smell of decay and as the stench travels upward and invades my nostrils, I cannot help grimacing. It's revolting and I very nearly pull back for fresh air. None of the zombies have smelt pleasant but none of them have smelt this bad. I wonder how long these ones have been undead.  
The zombies in the hayloft have arrived at the rafter. Stan shoots at them but as one gets shot in the head and falls dead again, another begins moving along the rafter, swinging along it like a monkey would or a child would swing along monkey bars. Stan's bullets miss it as it swings back and forth. Having spotted Stan, the zombies with missing flesh are moving to group beneath him, like they are hoping he falls.  
'STAN!' I cry, trying to extend my arm further towards him. 'Come on!'  
He doesn't respond. Trying to shoot the zombie that's approaching him on the rafter, his shot misses again. Alarmed, my arm sill outstretched, I watch him aim again at the approaching zombie. He takes the shot. His gun clicks empty. He is out of bullets. I watch with horror as he realises this. The zombie keeps coming. Stan readies himself, balling his fists. When the zombie is within touching- or striking- distance of him, still hanging from the rafter, it holds on with one hand and using the other, reaches up and claws at Stan's legs, which are on either side of the rafter. The zombie's fingernails are grey, overgrown and sharp enough to do some damage. I grimace but Stan moves his legs back in time and the zombie slashes at thin air.  
Stan's back is to me so I cannot see his expression. But his shoulders are tensed and I see him bring his legs backwards and then forwards with speed so that the point of his boots collide with the zombie's chest. The zombie lets out a roar and then this happens again. The zombie, snarling and growling, tries to strike again but again Stan avoids him and then strikes him. A third time this occurs but this time, Stan's boot collides with the zombie's face. I wonder if the zombie is caught by surprise- if zombies can even feel surprise- because the move has it unexpectedly letting go of the rafter. I watch it go falling to the barn floor below, screeching as it falls, right in the middle of the zombies with the missing flesh. My stomach turns as I watch those zombies close in on the fallen one who is snarling feebly as it looks at those approaching it, now with their own overgrown fingernails and grey teeth bared.  
I almost feel sorry for the fallen zombie as it struggles back to its feet. Its surrounded by the ones with missing flesh who, after taking a couple more steps forward, give identical screeches and then dive at the fallen zombie. At first it tries to fight but quickly it gets overwhelmed. The sound of pain filled screeching fills the barn as the zombies with the missing flesh tear it apart.  
Bile rises in my throat but I swallow it back down, ignoring the horrible taste because Stan is carefully turning round on the rafter. I will him not to fall into the carnage below. He doesn't. Once he is turned back round, he begins moving towards the hatch again and makes it over unharmed. The zombies are too busy feasting on the one that they just killed to notice Stan or me when I offer him my arm. Straining myself a little, I pull him up, through the hatch and out of the barn.  
Once he is on the ceiling, dropping the gun in his hand, Stan bends forward and resting his hands on his knees, exhales a deep breath before spitting on the roof he is stood on. For a moment, I watch him take deep breaths, his face covered in sweat, before I turn to the others.  
Every ounce of my attention having been on Stan, I did not notice what Dirk and the rest had been doing. But now I see that they are crouched low in front of the higher part of the roof, looking over it.  
I look at Stan and he gives me a nod to show he is okay, given the circumstances. I do not believe him. How can any of us be even remotely okay? But I say nothing. Turning away from Stan, I bend down and almost crawl over to Elena and my classmates.  
Coming to a stop in between Elena and Marty, I cast a sideways glance at Elena. She is preoccupied with looking over the side of the roof. So I look over too. And my eyes widen.  
The farmyard stretches below us. Not much seems to have changed. Cliff and The Clan are still shooting the bigger of the two zombies who is still unaffected by the bullets. Except now, it is engaged in a test of strength with the other big zombie whose is no longer wearing a collar.  
Glancing around the ground, I notice the collar is lying at the feet of the zombie who had been wearing it and that it is broken in two. I wonder if the bigger zombie slashed it from the slightly smaller zombie's neck. The thought crosses my mind that without the collar, the zombie isn't in The Clan's control anymore. And that's when I notice that The Clan are in fact shooting at both zombies. However, the zombies' only concern is clearly fighting one another.  
Stan has now joined me and is crouched on my right. I hear him exhale a breath. He smells of sweat.  
'We gotta get outta here,' he says. 'They might've not come after us in the barn but I wouldn't be surprised if Cliff knew those zombies were in the stalls. It wouldn't surprise me if he recruits them as well. If I can get you guys to safety- if that even exists anymore- perhaps that can count some way towards my redemption.'  
Again I say nothing. I'm pretty certain I'll never be able to forget what Stan did. I might manage to keep it secret- mostly for Mom's sake- but forgiving Stan? I don't know if I'll be able to do that. Now is not the time to focus on that though.  
'Over there,' Stan says.  
'I look to see him nod towards the back of the barn and frown.  
'What?' I say, nonplussed.  
'The well,' Stan says, 'see it?'  
I look and I do see it. A couple of feet or so behind the barn it stands. A water well.  
''What about it?' comes Naomi's anxious voice.  
Casting a glance at her, I see that she is staring in the direction of the well too. So are Elena, Dirk, Marty and Tilly.  
'That's our way outta here,' Stan explains and before anyone can ask any questions, 'It leads down into the sewers and comes up in the heart of the city.'  
'How do you know that?' Tilly asks.  
I notice Stan hesitate. Then he breathes a heavy sigh, not looking at any of us.  
'I know this farm,' he mutters. 'It's abandoned. I've gotten many a call to come up here and break up teen parties and such. I... I told Cliff about this place. Come on.'  
His head bowed, quickly, as if he's eager to put space between himself and us, he moves towards the back of the barn, still crouched down.  
I swap a look with the others who have varying expressions of disbelief and dismay on their faces. I barely even feel shock at what Stan said. I feel like I don't know him anymore, like he's a completely different guy to the one I knew. To the one I had come to love.  
Elena, my classmates and I move after Stan, the sound of bullets and growling following us, the roof getting lower and lower. Reaching the end of the roof, where Stan is waiting for us, we all look down at the ground below. The well is not far at all. Neither is the ground.  
A moment passes. Then, without a word to any of us, Stan leaps from the roof and lands smoothly on the terrain. My eyebrows rise in surprise as I watch him straighten up and turn to us.  
'Come on!' he calls, waving us over. 'Hurry!'  
I swap a look with the others. Their expressions tell me they would rather be anywhere else, doing anything else, right now. But then Dirk is jumping and then Naomi, Tilly, Marty, Elena and finally me.  
I am the last one to straighten up. Before I can, Stan offers me his hand to pull me up. I do not take it, standing up by myself. Stan withdraws his hand. For a moment, he looks hurt. But he quickly rearranges his expression to a blank one. As he turns his back on me, I catch Elena's eye. She offers me a sympathetic look. I give her a small smile as Stan heads for the well. Dirk, Tilly, Marty and Naomi follow him. Elena waits for me to move and when I do, she walks beside me, our hands brushing. Bullets, roars, the dead and the undead are behind us. Uncertainty is in front of us. As I walk I cannot help wondering, will we ever wake from this nightmare?  
Zombies versus teens? That would make a good movie wouldn't it? That's fiction though. This is reality. Our reality. And it sucks.


	11. The Tunnel Part 1

My feet make a thudding sound as I land on the floor of the well, having let go of the ladder that ends halfway up the wall and does not reach the bottom. Near me, Naomi, Elena, Dirk and Marty are all glancing skyward, at the top of the well. Stan, having led us to the well, was the first one down the ladder and I was the last. Straightening up, I look to see my stepfather staring down the face of a dark tunnel. So this isn't a regular well; it just has the appearance of one. The noise of bullets and the roaring that I assume still belongs to the two tall zombies is only slightly less audible than when I and those I am with were on the roof of the barn.  
'This way,' Stan says a moment later, over his shoulder. 'We can't hang around. And be quick. They'll notice we're not in the barn and be on our tail before long.'  
And with this, he begins to move forward. Naomi is the first one after him and the rest of us follow. I cannot help feeling like I would feel a lot less uneasy if Stan still had his pistol. Although I hadn't known he had had that so maybe he has another weapon hidden somewhere.  
It is chilly down here in the well and as we begin walking down the tunnel and away from the ladder, the light begins to fade, giving the tunnel an eerie look. The floor is jagged and so are the walls, telling me that the tunnel is made of earth. It is also a twisting one. Since no-one is talking, I find myself counting the steps we take in my head. Thirty steps forward and Stan guides us around a corner. We are in near darkness now but then suddenly I hear the sound of a flashlight clicking on and a small bit of light emerges. Stan has turned on a flashlight. He must have already had it on him, unbeknownst to the rest of us, proving my earlier thought to be true. I wonder how far Stan has thought ahead. I wish he hadn't turned on us. Even though he turned back, it's hard to trust him now. Right now though, I don't have much choice.  
We carry on down the tunnel.  
'You okay?' I ask Elena, turning to face as much of her as I can see in the darkness.  
'No I am not,' she answers honestly. 'Are you?'  
I consider responding with a joke, try to lighten the mood. But it seems inappropriate.  
'No,' I say.  
Elena does not respond. We continue on.  
I think about what will happen when this whole thing's over. Because it's going to end sometime. Everything does. I just don't think about what that end's going to be. Whether it'll be life or death.  
What I do think about is what life will be like. Will things with Stan ever go back to normal? Will those of us who survive this... this apocalypse? Outbreak? Sickness. Will we ever be able to move on? Will Elena and I go our separate ways if we make it through this?  
I hope we don't.  
A few moments on, I hear Dirk giving Tilly his jacket. It is chilly in the tunnel. A few more moments on, Naomi snatches Marty's jacket off of him. I feel like he would have give it willingly if she had asked. The fact that Elena has a jacket of her own prevents the need for me to ask her if she wants mine.  
It is another minute or so later that I think I hear a faint growl. But I ignore it, deciding not to worry the others and hoping that I'm wrong.  
We turn another corner, Stan shining the flashlight ahead of him into the near darkness. I am getting tired of walking and so am almost relieved when suddenly Stan stops. The rest of us stop too. I look ahead to see Stan flashing his flashlight at a door paces away.  
I swallow as he moves towards it, his footsteps and our shallow, apprehensive breathing the only sounds in the tunnel. Reaching the door, Stan has just wrapped his hand around the doorknob when there comes a definite growl from over my shoulder. It sounds like a zombie dropped down into the well and is somewhere further down the tunnel. Maybe I really did hear a growl earlier. Elena and Naomi gasp, Marty whimpers and my heart begins to thud as Stan wrenches open the door. It appears to lead into an underground elevator.  
'Go,' he hisses at the rest of us, beckoning us forward.  
He doesn't have to ask us twice. We hasten forward, I bring up the rear. The growling grows louder. Stan moves aside as Marty, Dirk, Tilly, Naomi and Elena run into the elevator. The zombie turns the corner and a part of it comes into view, most of it hidden in the darkness. It gives a roar and begins to hasten down the tunnel towards me. I make the mistake of glancing over my shoulder at it. It looks to be Stage One. I gasp, whip around and begin to run faster, hearing Stan yell at me to do so.  
The darkness prevents me from seeing the loose rock. I do not even know it's there until I feel my foot catch on it. I lose my balance and fall face first to the ground, feeling my jaw strike the ground hard. The girls scream. Dirk swears. The pain is the worst thing I've ever known. I cry out. My eyes water. I taste blood. The last things I see of the other teens are Elena being held back by Tilly and Naomi because it looks like she stupidly wants to get to me and then Dirk suddenly reaching out and pulling the elevator door closed, saving the rest of them.  
This time it is Stan who swears. My vision is swimming. My jaw might be broken. The zombie is still growling. Abruptly Stan starts to run towards me. Is he planning to tackle the zombie?  
A moment passes. Then there comes the sound of the elevator moving upward.  
The zombie reaches me before Stan does. I hear it jump into the air. I want to move but am unable to. I feel the zombie land on top of me. I scream as its long and sharp toenails break through my thin t-shirt and dig into my back. The pain is terrible and now, coupled with the pain in my jaw, I feel like I am dying.  
I feel blood from where my skin was broken by the toenails soak my t-shirt. I wonder if the zombie's about to bite me. The thought terrifies me. Biting means infecting. I wish I had the strength to throw the zombie off of me.  
But then with a sudden angry roar, which in a way is more terrible than the roar the zombie gave, Stan tackles the zombie off of me and uses the butt of his flashlight to cave the zombie's face in as the zombie struggles to throw him off of its body. Stan hits it again and again, pieces of the zombie's ruined face flying about the tunnel.  
Seconds later the zombie stops struggling, dead. Seconds after this, my world falls into darkness as I succumb to the pain, Stan's laboured breathing becoming a shriek of my name the last thing I hear.

\---

A/N: This short and sweet chapter is dedicated to @itismechristie who wanted to see more.


	12. The Tunnel Part 2

I drift in and out of consciousness. Excruciating pain is what I know every time I awaken and every time I do, I am aware of something happening, though my vision is blurred. I am aware of a terrified Stan leaning over me in the tunnel, calling my name, telling me to stay with him. I am aware of him cursing in frustration. I am aware of my breathing, uneven and sharp. I am aware of the screams that leave my mouth. I am aware of Stan dragging me by my ankles towards the elevator, probably afraid that the zombie has infected me. As he drags me slowly along the ground, my back scrapes the floor of the tunnel, making the pain twice as much as my cut flesh, a result of the scratches the zombie left upon my back, makes contact with the earth. I scream louder. Stan apologises hastily but he knows- as I do- that if one zombie got into the tunnel, others could too. There is little time to be gentle.

Moments on, having passed out, I regain consciousness and discover that Stan and I are in the elevator and its moving upwards. Stan calls out to me. I hear him say that he needs to get me to a hospital. I try to respond, to say that since everyone was evacuated, no doctors are likely to be in any local hospital, but I cannot. The pain is so much that I wish I was dead. I don't know if I have been infected. I don't know if you CAN get infected by being scratched. I don't know if I'm becoming... one of them. I just know pain. Stan calls my name again. The elevator comes to a stop. I pass out again.


	13. Elena

I slap Dirk hard across the face and watch as he staggers back, shocked. Naomi, Tilly and Marty appear shocked too. But I don't care. I am furious. All I can see is Cole getting attacked by that zombie. And Dirk taking me away from him.  
'How could you do that?!' I yell at Dirk as he cradles his slapped cheek. 'Cole-'  
'Cole's probably on his way to being dead!' Dirk snarls in response. 'That's if he's not dead already! Or on his way to becoming one of them!'  
My temper flaring even more at his words, I lunge forward to slap him again. But he grabs my wrist and returns the glare I am giving him before roughly releasing my arm.  
'Listen up,' Dirk then says, looking round at me and the others. 'I'M in charge now.'  
Tilly, Marty and Naomi do not argue. The five of us are still in the elevator but it has come to a stop. The grilles are still closed but there is another pair of doors in front of them, a wooden pair, which we cannot see beyond, meaning that we do not know what lies or roams beyond them.  
'You're not in charge of me,' I spit at Dirk. 'Once you get out, I'm going back down to Cole-'  
'Again with Cole,' Naomi sneers unexpectedly, going over and standing beside Dirk. 'What, do you like him or something? I think Dirk's right. He's probably dead or a zombie. We should forget about him.'  
'Course YOU'D agree with Dirk,' Tilly says derisively, addressing Naomi. 'You obviously want to get with him again-'  
'Enough!' Dirk interrupts sharply before pointing a finger at me, 'You're not going anywhere, except with us.'  
'You came back for ME!' I cry. 'You all did! When I got taken by The Clan! Why won't you go back for Cole?!'  
'Course we came back for you!' Dirk snaps. 'You're the damn cure! You're our best bet right now of getting rid of that lot out here! Nobody needs Cole! And nobody wants him!'  
'... You're wrong,' I say quietly.  
But no-one hears me.  
Grimly, I watch Dirk go and place his ear against the grilles, trying to listen for any sound beyond the wooden doors. A moment later, he moves back and faces the rest of us again.  
'I don't think there's anything out there,' he says.  
'We need Stan,' Marty responds both timidly and suddenly, drawing all of our attentions. 'He knew about the tunnel. He would have known what's on the other side of those doors. We should go back for him and Cole-'  
'We are NOT going back!' Dirk yells, making Marty flinch. 'And just for that, YOU can go first nerd!'  
I watch with shock as Dirk grabs Marty by the collar and shoves him towards the grilles so forcefully that his glasses are knocked askew. Marty whimpers but as I step forward to help, Naomi moves steps in front of me.  
'Don't be a hero 'cure',' she snarls at me. 'We've got to get out of here somehow. Let the nerd get on with it.'  
As she turns away and focuses on Marty who has straightened his glasses and is staring at the grilles with trepidation but has yet to touch them, Tilly, her arms folded over her chest, walks up to me.  
'It's gotta be the hair dye,' she says, staring distastefully at Naomi's back. 'It's probably seeped through into her brain and made her evil. Though to be fair, she was a cow even when she was a brunette.'  
Unsure how to respond to this, I frown but say nothing.  
I think of Cole. I wonder how he is. How badly he's hurt. I hope he's going to be okay.  
'Go on farty!' Dirk abruptly yells, bringing me out of my thoughts. 'Open them!'  
'Farty Marty,' Tilly informs me, scowling at Dirk as he shoves Marty again. 'It's the nickname the jocks gave him.'  
Hearing this, I shake my head in disgust. Marty looks as if he really doesn't want to open the grilles. He's probably scared there's zombies on the other side. I don't blame him. That fear is one we share. I will Marty to stand up for himself when Dirk shoves him again. To tell Dirk no.  
But this isn't what happens. Instead Marty, clearly afraid of Dirk, raises his trembling hands and wraps them around the grilles. Gulping, he pulls them open.  
'Keep going,' Dirk orders, nodding at the wooden doors and when Marty hesitates, 'NOW!'  
His bottom lip trembling, Marty extends his still shaking hands. And he pushes open the doors open. And what is revealed on the other side has me stumbling back in horror and Marty and Tilly gasping. In the hallway of what appears to be a motel, Stan is on his knees, leaning over the body of Cole, Cole's head in Stan's lap. And Cole is a deathly white in colour. And he isn't moving. And his clothes are covered in blood. And Stan is sobbing heartwrenchingly.  
'C-Cole,' Stan, tears streaming down his face, cries when he looks up and sees us in the elevator. 'He- he's dead.'


End file.
